This is my latest post at ‘The Chopping Board’, my blog at The Times of India Blogs
Sunny Side Up
So how do you unwind over the weekend? How do you wash away the grime of the week? How do you repair and restore yourself before you get back into the ring again?
Hiking, yoga, tai chi, zumba, pilates? Some time at the spa perhaps? A long drive? Family time at the mall? Building model aeroplanes? A window garden…if you live in a big bad city and yet are lucky?
For me it is a good breakfast.
Yes, that’s it.
A nice relaxed breakfast in a cafe nearby. Robust coffee. Food that looks pretty. Tastes good. Different from the rushed toasts, omelettes scampered on a trot, the hastily poured out muesli or boil on a pan packaged upma that tides one through the week.
For me a weekend breakfast is all about unwinding…stretching out. About looking at the world languorously. Feeling pampered. Kneaded and towelled down like a boxer in between rounds.
It’s about ambling out of home after one has woken up all droopy eyed. A short drive at the most.
In search of breakfast even if it is past noon, for weekends work on a different clock.
One looks for a place which has a nice happy buzz to it. Not empty and yet not crowded….gives you a sense of space. Allows you to sit back and sink into cushioned comfort, select your favourite dishes and wait back waiting to be pampered. Cheerful walls, soft music, high ceilings. Big windows with a touch of green outside. Far away from the madding crowd, the heat, the dust, the buzzing flies and honking cars.
That pretty much sums it up.
Cafes have dotted Mumbai and cities across India and more are opening by the dozen. Most of these are European themed. Some set up by expats. Others by locals who have travelled across the world and now want to bring their experiences home.
Suddenly breakfast is no longer just about puri bhaaji, luchi alu, paratha dahi, idli dosa, poha or thepla. Waffles, pancakes, crepes, French toasts, scones, mueslis, yogurts, juices and omelettes with wondrous names are entering our lexicon…just as coffees and teas take many new shapes and forms.
I live in the suburb of Bandra at Mumbai. A suburb which is dotted with such cafes and I have my favourites.
There is Candies with its chicken sandwiches and cappuccino with petite fours on the side. And if one is patient, omelettes, eggs and baked beans too. The closest to breakfast in bed for me. Then there is Mocha Mojo with its beautifully plated waffles and buckwheat pancakes with Kenyan coffee. The Lebanese Foul Madame (beans & pita with hummus) at Eat Around the Corner if one wakes up in time or the omelettes there later on and a nice stiff cappuccino. The seductive Egg Benedicts at Cafe Basilico. Or, if one has a bit of energy and spunk to drive then at Cafe Zoe too. The occasional drive down empty Sunday roads by the Sea Link, Worli Seaface, the Queen’s Necklace at Nariman Point to Le Pain Quotidien with its lovely wooden interiors. A place which comes with Colaba attached to it.
All breakfasts that make one feel good about life again.
So what is your breakfast indulgence?