The Most Important Meal of the Day

    We all remember our moms, dads, doctors, teachers and everyone else telling us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and they were right. It is the most important, but not always the best tasting the way most people do it. I mean what did most of you have for breakfast over the past week? Let me guess: oatmeal with water and no sugar (DAD!), maybe some fruit, coffee, coffee, and more coffee, some toast, or maybe some pencil shavings...I mean cereal. Depressing, isn't it? Well as these places have shown, it doesn't have to be the coffee infused bore-fest that we've come to expect every morning. And I can already hear you..."but Brad, I don't have time!" This is BS. or "It's too hard!" Once again...BS. Or my favorite, "I don't really like breakfast food!" Then guess what, you haven't eaten it when it's done right. You have time, you can do it, and you will like it. Now the places I'll describe aren't for the 10 minutes before you go to work, they are for the days off, or the weekend, or when you have time to spend with significant other and/or kids. At the end I'll give you one or two recipes to make when you have time or even when you don't have but ten minutes. As per usual I try not to suggest a place to go or eat that I have not tried first, so while this list is good, it's not by any stretch of the imagination comprehensive so please leave some comments as to your favorite places. We all want to know the best spots and I haven't seen 'em all!

Loveless Cafe - Nashville, TN

    Loveless Cafe is located that the northern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway connecting Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS. It's a wonderful parkway that is perfect for a sightseeing drive or bike ride and Loveless is the perfect place to start your adventure. This place used to be a restaurant and motel for motorists and bikers alike, but in more recent years has left the motel behind and upgraded their restaurant in both size and facilities including a bigger kitchen, dining room and stores to buy food, books and other items. Now, to the food. Loveless is best known for two things biscuits and country ham. Their ham is for lack of a better word perfect. It's wonderfully salty and succulent and the accompanying red eye gravy is nothing short of spectacular. Their most famous item is, however, their biscuits. They have been making these famous biscuits for decades and the recipe has never changed. The best part is that they are served like bread in normal restaurants. You get as many as you want and they come with butter and fresh preserves. But...If you're in the know then you need to order one additional thing with your biscuits, their famous sorghum. Sorghum is kind of like molasses, but whereas molasses is made from sugarcane byproduct, sorghum is made from sorghum grain. It's hard to describe, but you will love it if you like molasses. Go early because there is usually a wait, but you can always shop while you're waiting!

Lynn's Paradise Cafe - Louisville, KY

    Lynn's Paradise Cafe is a really cool, quirky place that has become famous is Louisville as well as around the entire country for its perfectly prepared breakfast foods. Their decor is over the top and fun and colorful, and the food follows suit, being fun new takes on good ole' American breakfast foods. They have fun dishes like their multigrain giant pancakes with their homemade cinnamon granola between the cakes. Or, the BLT home fries baked with crisp bacon, fresh baby spinach, tomatoes, onions, jack cheese and garnished with horseradish sour cream, with two eggs. It's not stuff that is weird and strange, just fun and really tasty. 

Hominy Grill - Charleston, SC

    If you've read my previous posts then you know that I have already talked about Jestine's Kitchen, but there is another place that gets even higher reviews in the breakfast arena, Hominy Grill. The chef from Hominy Grill, Robert Stehling, is a James Beard award winner and even that honor doesn't do him justice. His restaurant follows the local ingredient movement and does it very well. He doesn't really go strange or unique with the types of dishes he serves, basically good, simple southern cooking. His biscuits are spectacular and, as the restaurant name suggests, the grits really are famous. To make it better, Chef Stehling makes his own bacon and sausage and uses only local butter and his own bacon grease in his cooking. Ridiculous I know, but when someone goes through this kind of effort to make his food good, it shows. Make the effort to get there!

Peninsula Hotel - Chicago, IL

    Now, I know there are better places to get a plated breakfast in Chicago, I mean hell, it's Chicago. If you're there just explore because it's one of the best food scenes in America. That being said, my favorite breakfast buffet in Chicago has to be the Sunday brunch buffet at the Peninsula Hotel on East Superior St. Now you will be shelling out some $$$$ for the Sunday buffet, but like anything else, you get what you pay for. The Lobby has huge high ceilings and tons of natural light, and just oozes luxury and opulence. As to the food, you won't be disappointed. The buffet is filled with breakfast favorites as well as things like pecan french toast, crab cakes benedict, fresh squeezed juices, and just about anything else you could possible want for breakfast or brunch. It's white glove service at its best and when you put all you can eat with white glove service it's a foodie's dream. 

City Coffee House and Cafe - St. Louis, MO

    This is a coffee house (obviously) as well as a French-style creperie in the Clayton area. You can get sweet or savory crepes, but my favorite have to be the nutella and banana or strawberry crepe. They make them to order and then douse them with homemade whipped cream. However, like I said, if you want savory then you won't find a better lunch crepe. They have just about every filling you could thing of from Italian to French, Mexican and Southwest to contemporary American. The only way to understand the variety is just to head over to their website and check out the extensive menu. There may be a bit of a line, but it is worth it for the sweet, sticky, succulent, and even savory crepes!

    So, check some of these places out, you may even get excited about breakfast again and find something special that you want to share with the world. Breakfast is delicious and fun just as worthy as the other meals for time and attention. Have fun and let me know some more places you enjoy with you comments. Below is not so much a recipe as a new way I've learned to cook eggs that give them the great taste of a fried egg with the velvet texture of a poached egg, basically steamed eggs.

Steamed Eggs

Prepare the frying pan as you normally would for fried eggs, meaning get a frying pan and add 2 tablespoons of canola oil or butter. When the pan comes up to temperature and the oil is "shimmering" add two eggs. Allow the eggs to fry as per normal, but when you would normally flip the eggs, just take one Teaspoon of water and a lid that covers the pan, and add the water to the pan and quickly cover with the lid. Many people know that water and oil do not mix and so do be careful not to allow the oil to fly out of the pan onto the burner. What happens is that instead of flipping the egg and possible burning or breaking the yolk, it gets steamed by the rapidly evaporating water. All you need to do is take the eggs out when they are done to your preference. You will find that they are velvety because they are steamed instead of directly cooked in the oil. Enjoy!

Australia - Food, Fun and...Rainforests??

    Australia is an interesting country to me for many reasons, the first of which is the fact that so many Americans want to go there despite having very little knowledge of what the country is like. I'm serious. Ask 10 of your friends and I doubt very much that more than one or two will say they have no desire to take a trip to Australia, and even one or two may even be a high guess. But, if you then ask those people what Australia is like, they will probably give you a good description of Crocodile Dundee's scenery. Now much of Australia is "Outback," or kind of a brush, small tree filled desert, but how many people here know that Australia holds an enormous rain forest on the northeast portion of the country? As a matter of fact, over 92% of Australians live in the coastal urban cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, and Brisbane). This concentration of people in urban areas does drive one of the most wonderful melting pot foodie scenes in the world.
    This culinary atmosphere is the second reason Australia is so freakin awesome. Many wouldn't think about the fact that there is such an Asian influence here, but if you think about it Australia is about as close to Asia as you can get without officially being an Asian. Therefore, some of the best Asian food I've ever had has been in Sydney. Also, not only is there great Asian food, but fun, new meats as well. If you're in Australia then it would be sacrilege not to at least try an indigenous meat like ostrich or kangaroo, but this country is also known for some of the best steak and lamb in the entire world, not to mention the seafood caught around all of these coastal cities. The other thing Australia is known for is their wine. Aussie Shiraz  is just awesome. It usually has a spicier feel on the palate than comparable Californian or South African wine, and is often the perfect companion to a nice t-bone or plump lamb chop.
    "So you've whetted my palate, where should I go for this delicious food?" You ask, I answer. If you want a little of everything then there is no better place than Sydney. Sydney is beautiful, as this pic shows,

and it is also Australia's largest city and as such, plays host to just about every type of food found on the continent. From personal experience if you want one of the best chinese duck dishes ever then head over to Billy Kwong for a crispy duck that is served with oranges, mandarins, or plums depending on season. This duck is so far beyond perfect that life afterwards is almost a let down. You won't have better crispy duck for the rest of you life, so you'll just have to get used to that fact if you're a duck lover. It's pretty crowded and the restaurant is on the tiny side, but it is definitely worth it. Another Asian food that doesn't get enough recognition around the world but is presented wonderfully in Australia is Mamak in Sydney. Malaysian food is a great mix between Indian and Chinese or Thai. It has a vast array of curries served along/on top of/in/etc. lamb, veggies, breads (roti) and rice. Mamak is a very authentic place with some of the best, most complex curries that showcase malaysian food at its finest. You have to try a few different roti's and any one of the satays. Malaysian food maybe new to you, but this place will bring you back over and over. I don't really have too many recommendations for more typical lamb/steak fare, but there are so many great places in sydney and Melbourne that you can really just close your eyes and point and you'll find one. The best idea is just to walk down the street and find a place that serves multiple types of the dish you want most.
    An area I mentioned earlier that many people don't know about Australia is the rainforest in North Queensland (Northeast Australia). This is one of the oldest rainforests in the world (over 65 million years older than the Amazon) and is truly an experience in and of itself. If you are able to, that is if you have the budget, the treehouse type hotels in the rainforest between Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation are really neat and often have fantastic activities in both the rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. There are rainforest hikes, zip lines, nature centers, boat rides, reef diving, and tons of other stuff to do while you're tucked up away from the rest of the country. Just because the area is so beautiful, here are a few pics from my trip here back in 2006.

    The food up here is also something of a draw. In Canberra (the largest city in this area) there is a huge Asian influence, but in the rainforest itself the thing in which to indulge are the fruits and nuts. For all of you who like passion fruit, this is where some of the best in the world is found. you will find yourself addicted, and I'm not kidding one bit. I think my father still has dreams about eating pounds of passion fruits in the morning. They are worth the trip all by themselves.
    As to the rest of the country, if you want to venture out into the Outback of Australia then you will not be disappointed. I was not able to see this part of the country when my father and I went, but Ayer's Rock is supposed to be spectacular and there is a reason that Australia is known for the Outback (aside from the oh so local Bloomin Onions). The primary point here is that you will not be disappointed no matter where you aim your trip. My suggestion is just to go there, which is not all that hard nowadays. I've actually found much cheaper airfare from the US to Sydney than from Chicago to LA, and often you can often find round trip tickets for about $600 per way.
    As per usual, here is the recipe for the week. Since there isn't really a single dish that represents Australia, I've tried to combine the wonderful meat heritage of the country with some of its newer Asian influences. The dish is marinated lamb loin chops, but I'm going to give you a few choices for the marinade. The first one is a Peanut Satay marinade, and the second is a Honey and Soy marinade, and I'll also give you two different ways to cook the meat. Enjoy!

Ingredients for Peanut Satay marinated Lamb Loin Chops
- 1 lamb loin chop for each person, these marinades are presented for 2 chops so increase or decrease as necessary
- 3 tablespoons peanut butter, crunchy or smooth
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon curry powder

Ingredients for Honey and Soy marinated Lamb Loin Chops

- 3 tablespoons honey

- 3 tablespoons light soy sauce

- garlic, crushed, to taste

- 1 teaspoon grated ginger

- black pepper to taste

Directions for Grilling

Preheat grill or BBQ on high. Cook chops about 2 minutes, until just starting to brown, before basting with sauce (optional). Continue cooking lamb chops for another 3-5 minutes each side, basting occasionally.  If desired, serve chops with leftover basting sauce for dipping.


Directions for Sauteing
In a heavy frying pan, sear over high heat for ½ to 2 minutes each side, until just starting to brown, before basting with sauce (optional). Reduce heat to medium and cook chops for 2-4 more minutes, turning once.  If desired, serve chops with leftover basting sauce for dipping.

An Homage to That Glorious Food...The Burger!

    So I would think that if I asked you to name an All-American food that the burger would be at or near the top of just about everyone's list. But why is this? Why has this grilled ground beef sandwich taken such a top spot in our collective culinary hearts? I guess it would have to be first that they're freakin delicious, and second is that they are so customizable and each individual can you his/her own favorite ingredients to make it as fun, boring, delicious, adventurous, spicy, or any other adjective you can think of. It's the perfect food with which to express one's own culinary viewpoint.
    So what makes a good burger? Well you give me 10 chefs and i'll give you 10 opinions, however there are some things that make a better burger. First of all is the meat. The meat that restaurants (and many chefs) tend to use is 80/20 ground chuck. That's 80% beef and 20% fat. I actually prefer 85/15 because it's not as greasy while still being fatty enough to stay in patty form and be delicious. If you can, get ground sirloin, I know it's a little more expensive but you get what you pay for. Pay for better meat, get a better burger. The most underrated thing in constructing a burger is the bun. Everybody's different, but you need a bun that can hold the burger without getting soggy as well as keeping the good bread taste. For store bought buns I like Sara Lee's bakery buns, and for bakery buns or home made I like yeast  buns or nice thick whole grain bun. The third thing you need is a HOT grill, frying pan, or flat top. The hot grill will give the burger that crust that everyone loves. Now you don't want to burn the meat, so after you get the crust you will want to turn it down to medium/ medium-high heat to get the burger to cook to your wanted temperature. Other than that pick and choose your favorite ingredients, that's the fun part. It's like when you were a kid and imagined crazy things to put together. Now you're an adult and nobody can tell you what to do. You want a fried egg on your burger? Go for it! You like pepper and onions and chile sauce? Knock yourself out! Have fun and try some new things. Here's my favorite burger: 1/2 lb ground sirloin with gruyere cheese melted on top, crisp applewood smoked bacon, a piece of Bibb lettuce, and sauteed mushrooms tossed in a red wine reduction. Sound a little ridiculous? Maybe, but it is so good when it's done right.
    As this isn't just a cooking, but also a travel blog I would be remiss if I didn't give you some great places to find a great burger, and first up is a place in Fairhope, Alabama (a suburb of Mobile) called Panini Pete's. They just do it right. They have around six burgers on their menu, and each one is just awesome. My favorite (and the burger that my wife talks about all the time) is the black and blue burger, which is 100% angus beef rubbed with a good cajun spice and topped with a gorgonzola cheese. I can't promise good breath afterwards, but your taste buds will love you forever. If you're up in the Nashville, TN area and you don't mind going to a dive/diner then you absolutely have to go to Brown's Diner in the Vanderbilt/Belmont area. Now this place isn't upscale by any means (basically it's a double wide trailer) but they serve the best diner style burger anywhere. It's wonderfully greasy and comes with perfect shoestring fries that make you just feel like a "real American." Do yourself a favor and get there. A third burger, and the one that inspired my favorite toppings is the restaurant at the Hilton Golf Resort in Sedona, AZ. I know it's a hotel restaurant, and I can't give an opinion on any other thing on their menu, but they do a great burger. They use Kobe beef and grill it to perfection. Mine came topped with Gruyere cheese, caramelized onions and mushrooms tossed in a port wine reduction that was sweet, sticky and wonderful. Their golf course is one of the prettiest I have ever seen, and there is nothing better than a great burger.
    So that's pretty much it for this week. So as always, I encourage you to go out there and try new things, even if that new thing is an old comfort food like burgers. Try new toppings, new cheeses, and even new breads, and you might find a culinary voice that expresses your individuality that you can then share with with your friends. You might even make someone else's favorite burger. Bon appétit and Bon Voyage!