Breakfast Paradise

I recently realized that I haven't written yet about one of my most favorite places in Atlanta: The Original Pancake House. I live only a couple of miles from it on Lavista Rd. and I have been there probably around 10 times. If I was an early riser, I could probably go there every day. However, it seems that everyone loves this place so forget about getting a table in a timely manner if you go after 9 am! Even for only 2 people, you'll probably need to wait at least 30 min. One tip I can offer is waiting close by the "bar." Those spots are first-come, first-served, and it's usually possible to get a spot there pretty quickly. Plus, the whole menu is available at the bar, and the person who works there is very friendly :)

The Original Pancake House has a multi-page, diner-like menu that I would scoff at if I saw it at most other places. They offer probably 30 different types of pancakes, 10 types of waffles, many omelets and typical breakfast specialties with eggs and meats. I'll start with what I haven't tried: any of the waffles, the French toast, and the huge, intimidating Dutch baby. An order of a Dutch baby, a baked custard with berries, is literally the whole pan. I've seen it on other people's tables, but I haven't been brave enough to order it.

Now the things I've had, starting with pancakes. The banana pancakes are amazing! They are light and fluffy, not too salty or too sweet, with real bananas inside the pancakes and on top of the pancakes. Plus, they come with their own special tropical sauce instead of syrup. The sauce reminds me a lot of diluted orange juice, but it's surprisingly good. I've also had the plain buttermilk pancakes and the buckwheat pancakes as part of a breakfast dish. The meat dishes come with a side of buttermilk pancakes, but you can sub the buckwheat pancakes if you ask nicely. However, the buckwheat variety is a little too dense for me, so I prefer the plain buttermilk.

In the pancake section you can also find Swedish pancakes. Well, I expected an American pancake-style dish with lingonberry sauce instead of syrup. However, what I got are HUGE crepe-like pancakes. The Swedish pancakes were oblong, the size of two large crepes put side-to-side, and each order came with three of them. The pancakes were even lighter than crepes, having a more lacy appearance. After my initial surprise with the order, I really enjoyed them and ate 2.5 of those enormous pancakes.

Talking about crepes, I've tried the cherry crepes and the banana crepes. I was a little disappointed with the cherry crepes mostly because of the quality of the cherries. They tasted very artificial, as if they came from a jar. Plus, they lacked the tartness I expected. On the bright side, the banana crepes were perfect. It was obvious they were made with real bananas :) By the way, the crepes have whipped creme as a base for their fruit stuffing, and the amount and sweetness of the cream are just right.

On the more savory side, I've had the Southwestern omelet. It comes with red and green bell peppers, onions, and typical Tex-Mex flavors. It comes with a special spicy sauce that I really loved and a side of pancakes. The omelet at Original Pancake House is one of the fluffiest I have ever seen. It looks more like a souffle than an omelet. It was cooked well, and wasn't greasy or soggy. Some omelets I've had at many other places become soggy when the liquids from the veggies separate from the eggs - not a nice sight.

On mornings when I'm not too hungry, I just order two scrambled eggs. I've had both the plain version and eggs scrambled with cheese. I like the plain version a lot more. The cheesy eggs had way too much cheese. I don't even know how that's possible considering that I LOVE cheese, but the eggs with cheese just don't taste right to me. Well, two scrambled eggs is not a big enough breakfast even if I'm not hungry, so I have to order the mixed berries fruit bowl. You have to try it!!!! It's a large bowl of fresh, ripe, juicy, sweet berries - blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, bananas. And yes, bananas are actually berries. But what makes this dish so amazing is the small bowl of whipped cream to dip the berries in. I don't even know how to describe the whipped cream, but it's simply heavenly. It's thicker than, say, Miracle Whip, but it's just as light in taste. It's just a tad sweet. But the combination of the texture and flavor make it the best whipped cream I've had. I can definitely eat it by itself, but I also use it for the berries. Everyone who's tried it has loved it. Oh, the fruit bowl also comes in a melon version, but I have never ordered it. As long as it has the same cream, it must be good :) By the way, the restaurant uses the same cream for the crepes, but the hot temperature of the crepes starts melting the cream and it loses some of its appeal.

Finally, I haven't ordered any of the meat dishes, but I've been told that the bacon and the hash browns are also delicious. But what I'm dying to try next are the coconut pancakes or waffles. Maybe it's time for my first waffle?

Brunch the French way

French culture and cuisine seems to have a huge influence on San Francisco. There are countless of bakeries everywhere in town - from small neighborhood cafes to popular chains. Luckily, the majority of them serve delicious authentic food. The only bad thing is that I can't possibly try all the places I want to go to...

Well, the most obvious choice if you can go to only one bakery in San Francisco is La Boulange. It is a chain with several restaurants around the city, but the location I go to is the one in Cole Valley. This location offers typical bakery a-la-carte fare like croissants, quiches, turnovers and macarons, and it also has a made-to-order menu. I first tried La Boulange last year. On my last day there, I ordered the Fantastic French Toast. I was expecting a traditional French toast because nothing from the menu description suggests otherwise. But WOW! The French toast at La Boulange is seriously the best thing I have tasted in my life, at any restaurant, for any kind of meal. I couldn't go back there this year and taste it again.

So what makes the French toast so special? Well, it does comes in a round shape, but other than that it has a pretty much nondescript experience. But once you bite into it, you notice a flavor that's familiar, but yet it seems like it doesn't come from a traditional toast. After a little bit of thinking, you might realize that it tastes like creme brulee! Yes, that's right. And if you look carefully, you'll see that there is an egg custard layer beneath the toast itself. The combination of the creamy custard and the egg-soaked toast makes for a truly heavenly taste.

La Boulange is known for its macarons, which are supposedly the best macarons outside of France. I've tried several flavors so far, including chocolate, lemon, walnut, and raspberry mango (not pictured). They were fresh and did have just the perfect texture. However, the flavor wasn't as intense as I would have liked it to be. For example, I wish the lemon macarons were more lemony and that I could distinguish any kind of individual flavor rather than an overall fruity flavor in the mango raspberry macaron.

I'm a huge granola fan, so I also tried the granola at La Boulange (not pictured). I got mine with yogurt, which was the best part of the dish. It was very thick and sour, just like I like it. There are other items that I want to try, so I will definitely be going back there :)

Another French place that I had brunch at was La Terrasse at the Presidio park. The location of the restaurant was great. I had my brunch while looking at the Golden Gate Bridge on a sunny, warm day. I ordered the Brie, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes omelet, which was great. The cheese was perfectly melted, but not overpowering. There was a lot more spinach than I have seen in any omelet before, so I was able to get my daily serving of veggies :) My only disappointment is that the sun-dried tomatoes didn't stand out too much and were hard to find in the omelet.

You always wonder whether an international place here is as good as it would be in its country of origin. There were French people sitting close to me at both La Boulange and La Terrasse, and that to me is the best stamp of approval for a place.

Sun in My Belly

This is yet another place with a unique name that deserves to be the name of a post. Plus, the name exemplifies how you feel after you eat there :)

Sun in My Belly is a brunch spot in Decatur that is far away from the square and other popular spots, thus it had escaped my attention until now. I went there recently with Little Richie after he found out about my obsession with brunch food. Their menu featured all the standard brunch items, plus a good number of sandwiches. I didn’t even look at the sandwich list this time, but maybe I’ll try them some other time. My attention this time was grabbed by the omelet special: sun-dry tomato and cheddar cheese omelet. I ordered it with a side of hashed potatoes. The omelet was really good. First, it was the right size, so I was actually able to finish it. Second, there was just the right amount of gooey cheese in it. Finally, I loved the homestyle potatoes that were prepared with red and green bell peppers and onions. Plus, the potatoes held their shape well, rather than become disintegrated from overcooking which I’ve seen with other home fries.

Little Richie’s breakfast was the Kirkwood Special which included scrambled eggs, ­­­­­­­­­­a biscuit, and bacon. The scrambled eggs were infused with onion/chives flavor without any discernible pieces of onions/chives. In addition, they were quite creamy without you seeing stretchy cheese when you got a piece. Overall, they were really tasty. The bacon was much thicker than any other bacon I’ve seen. (I must admit, though, I don’t usually order bacon and don’t have much experience with it.) On the negative side, it wasn’t as crispy as I like my bacon to be. I didn’t try the biscuit, but it looked delicious as well.

The food at Sun in My Belly definitely made my belly happy. But there were other little things that put my mind in a good mood as well. First of all, I already mentioned that I love the name. In addition, each table had a little vase with a live carnation in it. Having live flowers around me always makes me happy. Finally, I liked the laid-back atmosphere of the place and that it was away from the bustle of most other brunch spots. I will definitely be going back there.