Posts Tagged ‘Breakfast’
Friday, April 22nd, 2011

There are few things in life that lift my spirits in a morning like a bacon sarnie does. Hungover, or not, that combination of salty, smoky bacon, bread, butter and whatever condiment takes your fancy is hard to beat. Fruit salad, muesli, granola, porridge, whilst all lovely in their own way, are always going to take second place.
The fine example above is the Old Spot bacon sandwich at St John Bread & Wine, which really is a thing of beauty. Thick cut bacon, yielding, lightly griddled white bread with a toothsome crust, butter and a generous helping of home made tomato ketchup on the side. As they say on their site, it truly is the Bacon Sandwich of your nocturnal fantasies.
But I’m not a butty elitist. In many ways I’m just as happy scarfing down some greasy spoon bacon slapped between a couple of slices of Sunblest. However you get your fix, it’s a breakfast that always feels like a bit of a treat, as opposed to just a way to start the day.
Truly one of life’s simple pleasures.
Tags: Bacon, Bread & Wine, Breakfast, Griddled, Ketchup, Salty, Sandwich, Sarnie, Simple Pleasures, Smoked, St John
Posted in Breakfast, Opinion, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
Having recently turned one, I’m in a reflective mood, so I thought I’d list my top 10 food highs and lows of the year. In no particular order.

Photo: MrLerone
Highs
1.Polpo – my new favourite restaurant. Very good Italian style tapas eating.
2.Sydney Breakfasts – just the bomb. I wish i could start every day Sydney style.
3.Whole Foods Market – the big one on Ken High Street is like heaven on earth.
4.Good Coffee – being shown what real coffee should taste like by Campos and Kaffeine.
5.Stuffed Courgette Flowers – still really chuffed about making these bad boys in France.
6.Engagement Dinner at Brasserie Balzar – the perfect Parisian place to pop the question.
7.Ramond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets – for my money, the best cookery show of the past year
8.The Santa Barbara Shellfish Company – one of the standout meals from our California road trip.
9.Good Mexican Food – from Benitos Hat to La Super Rica the Mexicans have been killing it. Me gusta.
(more…)
Tags: Balzar, Borough Market, Breakfast, Campos, Coffee, Courgette Flowers, Falafel, Just Falafs, Kaffeine, mexican, Polpo, Ramond Blanc, Scotts, Sophie Dahl, Sourdough, Sydney, The Wolseley, Tierra Brindisa, Whole Foods
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Things have been a bit quiet at Hand To Mouth towers over the past couple of weeks. The day job has been kind of getting in the way of my other life, but as should be clear by now I was born to eat, so normal service will be resumed soon.
In the down time I’ve been doing a bit of research finding out what people think of the blog, and what they’d like to see more or less of. I got some really good feedback, and there are a few things that I’m going to try and make happen over the next few months.
One is incorporating a bit of video into the site to give a bit more of an impression of techniques, textures and consistencies. A word of warning, I’m not in any way trained, so I may well lead you astray.
Another was an idea my mate Darren had. He’s suggested I tackle a few recipes from some weird and wonderful cookery books. I’ve got quite a few oddities knocking about at home like Len Deighton’s ‘Action Cook Book‘, so expect to see some throwback grub here soon.
Finally, my friends Lou and Liam who run the lovely Reading Rooms B&B in Margate, have asked me to contribute an item to their already cracking breakfast menu. I’ve got something in mind, it just needs a bit of tweaking, so more on this soon.
Any other comments or suggestions are welcome, so if you’ve got an opinion, please drop me a line.
See you round like a rissole.
(I can’t remember where I found the above image, so I’m sorry to whoever created it. Let me know and I will amend with credit where credit’s due).
Tags: Action Cook Book, Blog, Breakfast, Cookery, Hand To Mouth, Improvements, Len Deighton, Margate, Sample, Techniques, The Reading Rooms, Video
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Sunday, March 21st, 2010

As mentioned in a previous post, avocado on toast is one of our favourite breakfasts over here at Hand To mouth Towers. Recently we’ve been remixing it by adding a fried egg. A small change, but a significant one. Give it a go.
Anyway, a bit unremarkable in itself, but this morning I cracked my first ever double yolker and it’s pretty much made my day.
Thats is all.
Happy Sunday.
Tags: Avocado, Breakfast, Double, Fried Egg, Olive Oil, Toast, Tobasco, Yolk
Posted in Recipes | No Comments »
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
During the Summer holidays of my second year at university I went backpacking with my mate Ed around Egypt, Jordan and Israel. One of the most vivid memories I have from that trip was when we were staying in Islamic Jerusalem. We were sleeping on the roof of a pretty grotty hostel, but every morning we’d look forward to going to this local bakery for breakfast. This place wasn’t a cafe, but a proper working bakery. As well as supplying bread to local restaurants and shops, they guy who owned it was also kind of famous for his ‘breakfast pizzas’.

They were made on dough base that was smeared with tomato puree, then topped with a triangle of Dairylea style processed cheese, and an egg. They were then baked in a bread oven until the egg was cooked all the way through. Like the hostel, the pizzas were pretty basic, but I remember them being very tasty, and after we’d been there a couple of times, the guy let us make our own and put them in the oven.
This breakfast pizza is a more sophisticated version of the above, and uses some of the same basic ingredients as the pizza recipe featured in this earlier post.
Ingredients (per pizza)
Around 200g pizza dough
Tomato sauce
2 cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced
Teleggio cheese
(more…)
Tags: Bacon, Breakfast, Cheese, Dough, Egg, Ham, Israel, Pizza, Taleggio, Tomato
Posted in Breakfast, Recipes, Travel | No Comments »
Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Back to New York, if only briefly, for a quick bit about what might be my favourite place to eat breakfast in the World. Serious claim I know, but Williamsburgh’s Egg is amazing. So amazing in fact that the New York visit prior to this one I think we had breakfast there 3 times out of the 5 days we were there. We only managed twice this time, but if I lived in the neighborhood I’d have to stop myself eating here every bloody day of the week.
Egg is a really unassuming place tucked on a little side road off Bedford Avenue in Williamsburgh. It’s light years away from the city’s brash diners (that I also love) and has a really relaxed almost ‘hippyish’ atmosphere. The owners have their own little farm on the outskirts of New York state, which supplies as much produce to the restaurant as possible. (more…)
Tags: Breakfast, Brioche, Cheese, Chili, Egg, Eggs Rothko, Farm, Fennel, New York, Sausage, Williamsburgh
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
I sometimes get a bit bored with breakfast. Cerial during the week and a fry-up at the weekend, or whatever’s in the fridge and is easy to make and quick to eat. It seems like a bit of a shame seeing as it’s ‘the most important meal of the day’.

If you fancy something different try this avocado on toast. My missus introduced me to it, and now I love it too. No rocket science. It’s really quick and easy, and is also pretty healthy.
(more…)
Tags: Avocado, Breakfast, Olive Oli, Salt, Toast, Tobasco
Posted in Breakfast, Opinion, Recipes | 5 Comments »
Saturday, September 26th, 2009
Me and the missus just got back from a road trip in the good ol’ US of A driving down the Pacific coast from San Fran to LA, and then on to Chicago for a wedding. We had an amazing time, and a we ate like kings. I think the thing I like about the majority of food in the States is the lack of bullshit. It’s not delicate in any way, and it’s all the better for it. For the most part you can forget about foams, jus and micro herbs. But that’s not to say the food isn’t good, it’s as tasty as hell. It’s all about big, bold, brash flavours, ss you might expect from the Yanks.
Anyway, breakfast fast became our favourite meal of the day, and right here are out top four breakfasts from the trip.
Huevos Rancheros – literally ‘eggs ranch style’. Mexican style eggs (in this case scrambled with ham) served up on flour tortillas smothered in spicy tomato sauce, topped with black beans and avocado, with a side of home fries. Ay carrumba

Huevos Rancheros at The Crepevine, San Francisco
Hash & Eggs – despite the name, probably the poshest breakfast of the trip, but totally amazing. Spring onion, bacon and potato hash topped with a couple of poached eggs. The breakfast of champions. (more…)
Tags: Breakfast, cornbread, Crepevine, Eggs, Granola, Hash, Huevos Rancheros, maple syrup, Muffin, Roses, San Francisco, Sweet Cakes, Treebones, Waffle
Posted in Opinion, Recipes, Reviews, Travel | No Comments »