food to glow

 

One of the joys of visiting America is breakfast. Or rather, going out for breakfast.

Every city, town, speck on the map, boasts a place that opens at silly o’clock for the first meal of the day. The UK has a go, and has got better, but to really do breakfast out you must visit the US. Top tip: eat a light dinner the night before. And don’t plan on eating for the rest of the day.

One of our most memorable meals was at an iHop on the Las Vegas strip. Jet-lagged and all over the place with our appetite, we headed into a branch of this national chain on our way to the Grand Canyon. As we ploughed our wide-eyed way through breakfast burritos, we were caught up in the feel-good vibe of a busy cafe, with its speedy, wise-cracking waitresses, and all of humanity ranging around the room enjoying a hearty early meal. The vegetable, bean, cheese, egg and two kinds of salsa-stuffed burritos were the size of swaddling babies, btw. We couldn’t finish them. Thank God.

Some cafes in the US cater exclusively to the breakfast crowd, closing early in the afternoon after a long morning of flipping pancakes and stirring oatmeal. Still others are open all day, serving all meals, at their ordered time slots. Or you may find a no-nonsense chrome and formica diner offering all-day breakfasts, perhaps plying you with platters (actual plates are rarely offered) that straddle the arbitrary boundaries between breakfast, lunch and dinner. In a nation known for its obesity it is as easy to get an angina-inducing mound of fried eggs, potatoes, steak and/or pork chops (yuck) as it is to order an over-easy egg, toast and grits. There may be regional variations on the wipe-clean menu (grits in the south, for instance), but mostly it is about syrup-laden pancakes and cured meat and eggs. Definitely not a healthy option.

Over the years it has become easier to eat more lightly, and more healthily – whole-grain pancakes, fruit, egg-white omelettes, oatmeal with berries. But with eight illustrated pages of breakfast options the norm, often for the price of a lunchtime sandwich, staying the right side of healthy is sometimes as easy as swimming in treacle.

Aside from the food, these breakfast eateries (they are not infrequently called eateries) are a great place to go to eat with people from all walks of life. Almost anywhere you go you can dine with retired couples, a Rotary club meeting, business people, folk with their lives in their backpacks, extended families and visitors – all choosing from the same wide-ranging menus. As long as you have a hearty appetite you will find something to suit any wallet. It is the most democratic meal (small d) in America.

The variety of dishes – and the bottomless cups of coffee – of even the most humble roadside pitstop puts most UK eateries in the shade. Sure in the UK you can get a full English or Scottish (etc) breakfast of egg, bacon, sausage, toast, beans and mushrooms (with veggie equivalents). Sometimes a small stack of iffy pancakes. But in my opinion these pale against the option of at least six ways to order your eggs. Not to mention the super-light pancakes, stratas and waffles. I have yet to find a place in the UK – even ones that are highly recommended by others – that does a waffle or pancake the way I like them, i.e. not like out-sized hockey pucks. The exception is Earthy in Causewayside, Edinburgh.

I got the idea for today’s waffle from a very pleasant waffle-eating session there earlier this year. I couldn’t wait to go home and try, replicate and riff on their scrummy, light waffles. I think I got close. My Dad will most definitely not approve – he is a sweet Belgian waffle man through and through – but I hope you like the savoury-sweet food to glow twist. Ideally I would eat this in a crowd of people and get someone else to do the washing up, but Radio 2 and my dishwasher will have to do. 🙂 Enjoy your week.

PS If waffles aren’t your thing, do check my rambling, chaotic Index (if you dare) for loads of properly savoury breakfast goodies – all healthy. Look under “Breakfast and Brunch.”