Friday, July 14, 2006

Paean to a Morning Breakfast

I've never been a person to linger over breakfast. I think maybe I was wrong to be like that. Maybe I'd been going about it in the wrong way.

I very carefully collected a lovely breakfast this morning fit for royalty. I slowly ate my way through it, enjoying the sight of the rising sun, the canticles sung out to God by the birds, the ensuing, joyful sound of church bells calling out the hour of Matins. To be at peace in the calm of the morning, eating a breakfast of good whole foods, is the best way to begin a day. I really should do it more often.

Can you figure out what I had for breakfast?



The first one's easy because it's already written on the side: Greek Yoghurt (shepherd style for those who can't read French)

Let's see what else you can guess... (No cheating Papa!) ;-)

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June 16, 9 AM
Alrighty, the list:

1) Pink Lady Apple
2) Orange, Mandarin, Apricot, Apple Juice
3) Pastry #1 An escargot, a snail-shaped pastry with custard and raisins
4) Pastry #2 Pain au chocolat
5) Green Almonds (the fuzzy things ;-) )
6) Greek yoghurt-- to be exact, ewe's milk yoghurt

For those of you not familiar, almonds are born within a fruit of fuzzy green colour. Picked early they may not have fully formed yet. These can be eaten as a jellly like nut. A little bit later on the fruit is still green but a pale ivory slip of a nut lies within, easily slipped out of its sheat but, as my finger can attest to, not so easily cut out. Check this page out for some more information.



As you can see, the shell has formed but it's not impossible to open. A good nutcracker makes easier work of it.


I made mention to Michelle of Accidental Scientist that I was going to have pink currants at breakfast the next day. These currants are sweeter than the white or red and very suitable for eating out of hand or in a dessert. I'm sure they'd make excellent jelly.


Thought you might want to have a look at another French breakfast delight...

13 comments:

Michelle said...

An apple! And orange juice! And everything else looks scrumptious too, but I don't know my pastries well enough to guess that and I have no idea what those fuzzy green fruits are! This truly does look like a lovely breakfast...
reminds me of breakfast in Spain...langouring over my churros with chocolate. I think in America we always eat too fast and don't draw out the conversation like we should. It actually took me a while to slow down when I was in Spain and eat like a local!

Dawn said...

Ok, my guess, before I read Michelle's comments: OJ, either a pink lady apple or a Macintosh, paw paws (maybe?!), yogurt, and sweet breads with raisins.

Ok...now I have to know, what are those green things?

Anonymous said...

The green things look like the fresh picked almonds that are on the cover of the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. (At least I think they are almonds!) The breakfast looks so delicious and good for you.

neil said...

Oh, I love a food quiz.

1. pink lady apple
2. pain au chocolate
3. escargot
4. green almonds
5. sniff, sniff, someone is brewing coffee.

Anonymous said...

Definitely pain au chocolat, cinnamon/raisins round thingy [i can't remember the name, damn!] an apple, yoghurt [of course], orange juice and what's that green thing??? :)

s'kat said...

Those have to be green almonds, pain au chocolate, brioche...

wheresmymind said...

I do dig lingering over breakfast on the weekends...makes me feel so relaxed :)

Cyndi said...

Green almonds? Fuzzy? Hmm. Can't wait to hear about those!

barb said...

Breakfast just so happens to be my most favorite meal and yours looks very good and healthy.

Gattina Cheung said...

Never see fresh almond. The first thing I'd grab is that pastry!

Deetsa said...

Thanks to everyone who guessed and commented. :D

Michelle said...

Nerissa! Those pink currants are sooo pretty! I love the color! Now wait, what were those green things?

Deetsa said...

mamak: oh it was!

michelle: the fuzzy green things? They're the green almonds, dearest.