Vive l'onion!

I think what happened here was I'd begun nibbling on the freshly toasted ONION ROLL with salted butter and thought oh my god I need to take a picture.  This was one of those seat-of-your-pants breakfasts using available ingredients.  I was already doing a red onion egg scramble and I did it the patient way, taking time to let the onions soften and even more time to let them caramelize a bit.  And we had these onion rolls in the freezer and I thought hey I've got this onion theme going here and what would that be like toast - with butter - for BREAKFAST?  It was really nice.  And then fresh sliced tomatoes with fresh squeezed lemon, a splash of Spanish olive oil, salt, pepper.  The fresh lemony-ness and bright tomato cut through the oniony richness of eggs and toasted rolls.  Black hot coffee.  I'm telling you. 

Scattered, Smothered, Etc.

I've mentioned Waffle House here before.  Some are better than others and the quality seems very much to be tied to the mood of the folks working there.  But sometimes they're all getting along and shouting orders back and forth and dishes being done, fresh coffee being brewed, and almost this quality of being that I might describe as flow accompanied by a sense of pride of accomplishment.  Pictured here, hash browns extra crispy and yes the cook did that for me, extra crispy, with onions, tomatoes, peppers.  A few dashes of Tabasco!  And then.  Raisin Toast!  Eggs Scrambled!  Plus they serve the raisin toast with apple butter.  This breakfast, imbued with the friendliness, is kind of unbeatable.

Unexpected Smoked Salmon Situation

So - to be clear - this is not a paid endorsement.  That being said, I think those Brueggers Bagels are fabulous.  Pumpernickel for me the clear top bagel.  So on their menu is this smoked salmon situation all ready to go and as it turns out, it is very effective.  Smoked salmon (smooth, smoky, salty), red onions (the correct amount), fresh tomato (a good tomato), and - this is the clincher - capers.  Yes!  Capers!  This requires no effort on the part of you, the customer.  No.  You just have to tell them what kind of bagel you want (which, I'm telling you now, is pumpernickel) and then just say the smoked salmon thing, as-is.  And with it there is this guilty pleasure I have which I hesitate to even mention here but I will tell you I am quite fond of hazelnut flavored coffee.  It is always super hot and fresh, which is key.  This is really good and will be next time, too.

Breakfast at the art museum

So I had to really focus and take some notes at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke but I realized I could not do it without some sustenance so I went to their cafe where they treat you really well.  I ordered these ranchero style eggs and it was just about perfect.  So great that the avocado was sliced and perfectly ripe and fresh chopped salsa and perfectly done black beans fresh cold sour cream a perfect stalk of cilantro and those eggs with some kick and perfect texture.  I'm at this point probably overdoing the idea of this being perfect but the thing is it really helped me.  Utterly fortifying (plus of course hot coffee) and then I think I spent three hours taking notes.  So all in all, yes, perfect.  

OMG French Toast With Strawberries and Real Maple Syrup

This 7-grain bread from the 9th Street Bakery in Durham, North Carolina, makes a really quite excellent French toast situation.  It has poppy seeds in it, for one thing.  And retains quite a bit of moisture and can get just the right amount of crispy.  Here we see two slices fresh out of the butter-sizzling pan and sloshed generously with gorgeous maple syrup.  Plain yoghurt and fresh strawberries.  A symphonic crescendo of warm, crispy, sweet, savory, sour, cold, creamy, fresh, juicy.  This is why I gave it all away in the title of this post.  An urgent sense of OMG this is really good.