Category: french cuisine

Breakfast is best eaten abroad

Long-term memory works in fascinating ways. Mine certainly does. I remember some things in every single detail whilst others I completely forget.

And random memories come to me at random times.

Yesterday I woke up tired. It’s been a busy week. Somehow and out of the blue this vivid memory from three years ago suddenly came to my mind. Sheba and I were in Berlin, on the hunt for breakfast and we thought we’d check out the quirky cafe our AirBnb hostess suggested. That was one of the best breakfasts I ever had.

A great selection of fruit, warm bread, mozzarella, tomato, prosciutto, a boiled egg, olive pate. Everything was fresh and tasted amazing. Such a simple but delicious, full of flavour and full of goodness breakfast.

That got me thinking. A day earlier I was telling my colleagues how the best English breakfast I had was at a small hotel in the mountains, The Royal Ship Dolgellau in Wales. Every single ingredient was locally sourced and tasted incredible. Do you sense a theme here?

Food tastes better when on a holiday, a break, away from work and routine. Especially breakfast. The first meal of the day. It may just be that it happened that the quality of the food was way more superb in these two occasions but no…

The breakfast my wonderful AirBnb hostess Malvina served me every morning when I was in Bordeaux… (I can still taste the homemade honey)

…the fresh pastries the hotel owner we stayed in Rome brought us every day…

and the traditional ones we got from Prozymi bakery in Protaras last September (what I wouldn’t give for a tahinopitta right now)…

I came to the realisation that breakfast (well not just breakfast) tastes much better on holiday mode, weekend mode, break mode, especially in the sunshine, with beautiful views.

I got up, made some porridge and counted how many days I have left before I have a long-term hopefully, break from routine. I reckon breakfast will taste amazing from that day on.

I’d love to hear some of your favourite breakfast meals you had away. Or maybe that’s only me?

Eleni

Laughs and waffles

Socialising over food is probably my favourite thing to do. If I could I’d do it all day, every day. No wonder is scientifically proven to have health benefits, physical and psychological.

It’s even better when I get to try a new place in town with one of my favourite friends, Lucy. Let me tell you a little bit about Lucy.

Lucy is sweet, caring, funny, we can talk about anything and she is always happy to try new places. We always run out of time every time we meet, because we lose track of it every single time.

Our schedules are already getting busier and we are not even in December yet but we finally made it, we always do.  We always make time for the people we care about, it’s a universal human attribute I guess.

There’s a new-ish waffle restaurant in town, Pere Waffle that’s been on my list of new food places to try (still haven’t tried the new Lebanese one, Beity, where Kibbeh, the equivalent to Cypriot κουπες,  ‘minced beef croquettes’, one of the my guilty pleasures I enjoy every time I go home features on the menu) and of course sweet Lucy loved the idea of giving it a go.

I love a waffle, but I never tend to finish it, last one I had was a couple of years ago at Sprinkles and it was too sweet, too big, too of everything.

I decided to go for a savoury, ‘papounet’ (stuffed) one, since I’ve never tried a savoury one before. No idea why. I’ve had savoury crepes and pancakes plenty of times before but never waffles. Bizarre.

I had the salmon, tzatziki and cream cheese one, the Atlantico, and it was delicious, much better than I expected. The waffle was light and soft, and the ingredients tasted fresh, the best sign of great food. Brownie points for the salad dressing. Most restaurants in the UK serve the salad plain, tasting of nothing, but a bit of vinaigrette makes a world of difference. And extra brownie points for the portion size. Not too small, not ridiculously large. Just perfect.

Atlantico waffle

Lucy fancied something sweet so she went for Parisian, cheesecake in a waffle, heaven!

Parisian waffle

We enjoyed every bite whilst chatting about anything and everything, work, friendship, love life, fashion, our clumsiness, and we laughed, a lot.

I loved everything about Pere Waffle, cute, cosy space, friendly service and reasonable prices for such great food. I can’t wait to go again and try different fillings. And I can’t wait to see Lucy again!

Eleni