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!