Traveling Feast

Geoff and Debbie White opened the Perry Street Cafe in the fall of 2006.  I’ve driven by often, but never stopped in.  This morning I did and the number one item on my hit list was to try Debbie’s signature cinnamon roll.  Our waitress also suggested the home fries over the hashbrowns with the omelete, and I was grateful for the recommendation.  I’ll be back for both.

Here is the visual rundown:

Fried rice might sound a bit odd for breakfast, but this morning I was playing around with ways to use up some leftover shredded cabbage and start the day with some protein.  The result was simple and curiously satisfying as an unusual breakfast dish.  It ended up getting bonus points for also using up some quinoa and rice in the refrigerator.

QUINOA?! You may not stock quinoa in your kitchen currently, but if you don’t, that is the place to start.  Pronouced ‘KEEN-WAH,’ it is a leafy herb that grown in the Andes that produces an abundance of seeds. Part of the reason quinoa is remarkable is that it can be grown on rocky and hard packed soils where nothing else will grow, and the nutritional profile is impressive.  It is low in sugar and starch and high in fiber and unsaturated fats. It contains many essential vitamins and minerals as well as fifty percent more protein than wheat, rice and barley and this protein is high quality with a critical balance of the amino acids that are needed by the human body. Quinoa has bragging rights in the vegetable world for containing the amino acid lysine which normally found in meat, fish and eggs. It also provides phosphorous, calcium, iron, vitamin E and several of the B vitamins.

Here endeth the nutritional lesson and beginneth the recipe. Amen.

CRANKED PROTEIN BREAKFAST FRIED RICE

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter or sesame oil

1-2 cups thinly shredded cabbage

dash of salt

1 ½ cups leftover quinoa and rice mixture (see note below)

several dashes of soy sauce to taste

2 eggs, beaten

Directions

Melt butter in non-stick skillet and add cabbage and dash of salt. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
Stir in quinoa and rice and season with soy sauce to taste.
Add in the beaten eggs and cook, stirring constantly until the eggs are cooked to your liking.

2-3 servings

Note
In an effort to cut back on carbohydrates and bump up proteins, we have been cooking up a mixture of half rice, half quinoa for a side at dinner using the same proportions and cooking times we would for straight rice. This breakfast fried rice is a delicious way to use up leftovers as well as get both vegetables and protein from both the eggs and quinoa at start of the day.

I originally just made this by ‘feel’ so the specific measurements above are kitchen ‘guesstimates’ once it turned out well.  Let me know what you think.

After a week of heavy eating with some of the best chefs in the Northwest, I planned to simply order a glass of juice or a cup of tea at Café Presse this morning.  I’d arranged to meet Charles Drabkin there to follow up on a conversation begun over the weekend at the International Pinot Noir Celebration, and while food and cooking would inevitably be part of the conversation, I didn’t plan to eat anything.

But Drabkin spoke so enthusiastically about the food coming out of the kitchen that I felt a moral obligation to try something on the menu.

I looked for something cheap and noticed the omelette for a buck or two less than on any breakfast menu I’ve seen for quite some time.   I ordered one with mushrooms… not expecting much given the price… and when it came my expectations were met.  It was plain and completely alone in its dish.

But two bites into the omelette I started to wonder how in the world I was going to make it in for breakfast weekly given the fact that our home is on the other side of the state.

Most places use omelettes as a comatose-producing egg wrap for a mess of cheese, meats, and occassionally vegetables.  The perfect omelette at Café Presse is a study in simplicity.  You taste egg, perfectly cooked, and, in my case, mushrooms.  There was also a slight tang inside that I’m still trying to identify in the hopes that I might try to make something similar at home.  I hate to admit I couldn’t identify that third element immediately, but I’m willing to fess up in the hopes that one of you do know and will tell me.  Please.

It didn’t even occur to me to reach for the salt or pepper.  And Tabasco?  Not a chance.  You don’t mess with perfection.

Somers never has felt like a complete town to me.  Even as a kid riding up to Sliter’s Lumber with grandpa, I had the sense that a complete town needed more than a hardware store and two bars.  In the current configuration of this intersection of several streets at the northwest end of Flathead Lake, there is a solid little cafe.  In a previous incarnation, the spot next to Sliter’s housed a bank.  I suspect the business is better now that they offer biscuits and gravy rather than free checking.

The Somers Bay Cafe, established in 1997, is popular not for newfangled Yippie breakfast items packed with tofu and wheat germ, but for the simple farm breakfast options offered at thousands of similar cafes across the country: omeletes and scrambles, French toast and pancakes, biscuits and gravy, as well as the prerequisite bowl of oatmeal.  They do make their own multigrain bread (mine was a bit dry) and the chorizo sausage in several Mexican-leaning platters is made in house.

I’d call it a decent breakfast spot, but hardly one to survive for over a decade on comfort food alone.  I think at least part of the reason it is packed so often is that it makes Somers feel a bit more like a real town rather than just a little spur off of Highway 93 with a few old buildings.

BEFORE: Our first stop after checking out of our Portland hotel on our way to Seattle will be breakfast at, get this, a waffle stand called Flavour Spot on North Lombard.  Tacos have been something of a food theme coming up the coast, and the descriptions I’ve read of these FS waffles suggest that here might be the perfect breakfast taco… we’ll see.

AFTER: We came, we ordered, we ate.  This original Flavor Spot (they recently opened a second) sits in the corner of a video store parking lot.  You would most assuredly miss it if you weren’t looking specifically for it and had some idea that it might not look like your typical breakfast ’spot.’

We arrived at 9:45 a.m. and got in the back of the line that included a woman with two young charges, several couples, and a group of twenty-something guys with serious tattoo art.  Less than $15 bought breakfast for four: a $2 plain butter and powdered sugar number for Megan, a $3.50 Nut Fluffer for Peter (peanut butter and mallow fluff), a $3.50 S’more Waffle for Brendan (more mallow fluff and Nutella), and a $4 Sausage and Maple waffle for me.  Each came folded and wrapped like a taco.

The single picnic table next to the stand would be less inviting in the rain, but for a memorable start to the day this would have to rank fairly high on the list.  I would suggest trying on of the savory and sweet combinations on the menu like the Sausage Maple or the Ham and Cheese (with Black Forest ham and smoked Gouda).  Or you can blow the doors off your sugar quota for the day and order the waffle filled with lemon curd and whipped cream.