Brunch for breakfast, lunch and dinner please.
I really strongly believe that brunch food is one of the greatest food groups there is, and also brunch food isn’t just suitable for brunch time, brunch food is any time food. Sometimes when you go into brunch places, they change their menu at lunch time, offering me salads and burgers. Excuse me… but no, please don’t. Why would I go to a place that specializes in brunch food to then have sausage and mash. That is utter madness and should be outlawed immediately.
“Breakfast is a meal, but brunch is a culture”
I also think we should normalize the 2 course brunch. I can’t be the only one who finished their savoury and needs a little sweet treat, I am 100% into the idea of a brunch pudding. I love to load up with a savoury brunch feast and then balance that out with a pud, sometimes healthy…sometimes not.
“Brunch, for me, is an extended breakfast that should be enjoyed whenever you have time properly to engage in cooking and eating”
What I love about brunch is the versatility of simple ingredients, re-imagined over and over again to create a hundred different dishes. If you start with bacon and eggs, and give that to 10 different people, and allow them to take it in whatever direction they chose, you would most certainly get 10 different meals. Add into that cultural variation, regional variation, ingredient variation… what a melting pot of wonder you are going to start exploring.
I love to travel, and the idea of just setting off around the world and eating brunch in every country feels like the ultimate dream. Waking up in Marrakech eating msemen(1) with soft cheese and honey in the midday sun; Exploring Singapore after a hearty brunch of kaya toast(2) and soft boiled eggs; Feasting at the street food markets in Colombia, bite after bite of pan de queso(3), bollo(4) with a side of cheese and arepas con huevo(5). I can’t imagine a more idillic way to travel the world, and learn about cultures and traditions through food.
But until I hit the big bucks with my, quite frankly overdue lottery win, I will have to remain satisfied with less far flung brunches. For me, an egg has to be involved. Poached, scrambled, baked, fried; I am not fussy, I just feel like brunch isn’t complete without egg.
As a side note, my love for the humble egg isn’t just brunch related, I did a professional experiment in 2020, I decided to go vegan, starting with Veganuary, to see what it really felt like, to help better inform my development work… then covid hit and by the end of June life felt so bleak it was my overwhelming need for the comfort of a dippy egg in the throngs of lockdown after lockdown that finally broke my vegan streak… but I digress
Along with the obligatory egg, the next essential for me is some kind of bread like offering. Sourdough, crumpet, broiche, again, I’m not fussy, I just believe that bread is to egg like chips is to fish. How else are you going to ensure you don’t lose any of that rich golden nectar? From this point on, I’m open to suggestion. Meats, fish, veggies, spices, avocado, sauces, garnishes - that’s the beauty of a brunch.
The same meal, 1000 different ways.
1 - Msemen is a traditional Morroccan square pancake that is usually served with butter, honey and soft cheese
2 - Kaya toast is basically toast with kaya (coconut) jam, traditionally eaten as a breakfast food in Singapore, with soft boiled eggs and coffee
3 - Pan de queso is a small cheese bread made from tapioca flour and grated cheese, served as a breakfast or parva (quick breakfast snack), plain or filled with cream cheese or jam
4 - Bollo is a traditional Colombian bun made with yuca, potato or corn, wrapped and cooked in a corn leaf
5 - Arepas con huevo are the ultimate in breakfast comfort food. They're corn cakes fried in oil, then split and filled with an egg and fried again until the egg is just cooked