barry + breakfast + deutschland!

(it has fruit in it so it must be healthy, right?!)

guten tag!

breakfasts were so varied in germany, that i've broken this down into 2 posts. today, we're looking at a traditional bavarian brunch, with some cake thrown in for good measure. perhaps you'll be inspired for your own sunday get-together? it's easy enough to head down whyte, pick up some weisswurst, weissbier and have a family wurst showdown. ;)

i tried to tie this in with edmonton dining week menus, but the closest germanic influence i found was cafe lacombe doing a saskatoon berry strudel for their dessert. really? come on guys.

(how is it that almost one year later i can still tell you that here we have an egg nog, bavarian fruit bombe, austrian sachetorte, champagne and spanish vanilla selection?)

(for anyone headed over to bavaria, make a special stop in freising to naschwerk for some truly awesome cake.)

(apparently one way to eat weisswurst is to suck the meat out of the casing. oddly enough, none of the guys wanted to demonstrate this.)

also, please note the BASKET of pretzels. one basket is not enough.

(this is meatloaf. i don't even know what to say to that.)

barry's breakfast series continued...

(so. much. cod.)

take 2: lisbon, portugal

breakfasts i wish i was eating now continues in portugal where they have a massive obsession with salted cod...sure.

BUT fried cod fritters, egg tarts and cherry liquor totally work for me. you can find some wicked egg tarts right here in edmonton (including at the italian centre) to start your own breakfast foods journey.

if you're following along with edmonton dining week, might i suggest pairing your portugese breakfast stylings with sabor divino for lunch: they're serving cod!

(belem egg tarts and cod fritters: a winning combination.)

sweet and savoury,
with a depth of flavour.
my love of fried things :)

(a ginjinha liquor. very lisboan.)

a 10am start
could only be completed
with cherry liquor.

(seriously? even in the graffiti?)

barry's breakfast series.

first off: thank you all for the wonderful comments you've been leaving - glad you're enjoying the recipes, pictures and anecdotes here on the site. it's been quite a while since i've posted anything, so i thought i'd spring back by doing a series this week: mostly pictures, maybe a few haikus, but above all, a focus on deliciousness.

second: welcome to edmonton dining week. though it may not be as classy as new york fashion week, or as planned out as emergency preparedness week, i can promise it will be both tastier and fattier than both - and who doesn't love that?

i've started my dining week experiences by hitting up cafe select last night. and though i enjoyed both excellent service and an absolutely tasty entree, i realized that this week was missing something: breakfast. so here i am, encouraging you to go out and get inspired for lunch, dinner and dessert at any number of amazing edmonton restaurants this week, and to keep posted here for some inspiring international breakfast ideas for you to try at home.

breakfast from granada, spain:

memories of warmth,
decadent and comforting.
churros are a must.

but what else to have?
hot chocolate so thick:
a dip for churros.

slathered on baguette:
tomatoes, garlic, oil.
true tastes of summer.

barry's restaurant review: urban diner.

in an effort to save money, i’m trying to eat out only twice a month. as you can imagine, this is very hard for me since i love food. love. so, i try to make the outings count…and it’s such bitter disappointment when they don’t. take saturday’s outing to urban diner. i’ve never been before, but had heard ridiculously fantastic things about their brunch, so three buds and i decided to head over and see what all the fuss was about. it’s a cute place with lots of booths and tables, and though there was a line to get in, we didn’t wait long, and while we were waiting we had a fantastic view of pies. mmm…pies. we also had a great server who was very helpful, and a menu of gourmet breakfast dishes to choose from. the traditional eggs benny was a hit (great hollandaise sauce), as was the salmon and swiss quiche. the breakfast burger however…well, two of us ordered it, only one of us actually liked it, and it wasn’t me. you’d think a sandwich that had five (five!) proteins in it (ham, bacon, meatloaf, fried egg and cheddar cheese) would be heavenly. you would be wrong though. it was salty, the meatloaf was a funky texture (too soft) and was bland, and there was a red pepper spread. about the red pepper spread: you know when there’s a food you don’t like, olives for example, and there is the smallest portion of it in a dish you’re eating? all you taste is olives! well i normally like red peppers, but all i could taste was salt, bad meatloaf and olives. and by olives i mean red peppers. bad red peppers. it was so disheartening i had to get pie. i’m the kind of person who needs things to end on a positive note, like pie. damn good pie. between the four of us we ordered three desserts to share: banoffee pie, sour cream lemon pie and white chocolate orange-mint cheesecake. they sent our taste buds into sugar overdrive, and tried to erase memories of a bad breakfast from my mind. they didn’t succeed, but they did try, and i have to give them credit for that.

YAY:

• great pie.
• the eggs benny, and more importantly the hollandaise, was good.
• polite service.

MEH:

• the food was pricey; not a big deal if your meal tastes great, but it’s salt added to the wound if you’re not digging the food.

NAY:

• the breakfast burger (don’t do it, no matter how tempted you are!)
• there’s going to be a line to get in. you’ll just have to accept this fact if you’re heading there on a saturday morning after 9:30.
• very, very, limited parking.

Urban Diner
12427 102 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5N 0M2, Canada
(780) 488-7274