Tag Archives: Omelet

August 21, 2013 · 8:38 AM

Cafe Lift ***

428 N. 13th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19123

215.922.3031

Breakfast is my FAVORITE meal of the day. But it is not just an indulgence for me, it is a necessary ritual. God forbid I don’t eat my four-egg omelet before leaving the house in the morning, and I am like Atilla the Hun for the remainder of the day—just ask any of my friends.

Having spent almost all of my life with a passion for both breakfast and cooking, you can imagine that I have become quite talented at preparing 5-star omelets, fluffy pancakes, hearty oatmeals, and fresh yogurt parfaits (or at least I think so!). That being said, I am highly critical of breakfasts served outside of my own kitchen. Every now and then though, I venture to a restaurant to check out their version of breakfast and I did so this weekend at Café Lift.

The restaurant is a modern loft space, decorated as if Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel had a love child. It is verging on the edge of hipster, but it is comfortable and cozy to patrons of all ages (and there is a wide variety!).

I ordered the Plum Tomato Frittata with Asparagus, Roasted Plum Tomatoes, and Fontina Cheese, drizzled with Homemade Basil Pesto ($8).

The basil pesto was so fresh and summery, and the frittata was executed very well, without being overcooked or hard. The parmesan-crusted home fries were tasty, but a bit overcooked and consequently mushy for my liking (I told you I was critical!). The multigrain toast was god awful, but I’m watching my carb intake so I’ll consider that a blessing in disguise!

To accompany my enormous frittata, I also ordered a Lemon Ricotta Pancake topped with Fresh Strawberries ($3).

It sounded amazing, but fell a little flat for me. I thought the batter could have benefitted from some and/or more lemon zest. I just didn’t get that bright citrus flavor to compliment the creaminess of the ricotta. It did photograph quite lovely though. #pancakefoodporn

My friend Sara ordered the Special Eggs Florentine served with Jumbo Lump Crab Meat, Spinach, and Truffle Hollandaise Sauce ($11.50).

Normally, the dish would be served on an English muffin, but Sara is Gluten-Free so she had it open-face instead. She enjoyed it, although we both agreed the hollandaise was lacking a bit in truffle flavor…aka the best part.

All in all, the food was good but is it better than my own version of breakfast?

Nope.

I will definitely say that it is an awesome value for what you get though, and if you’re not as high maintenance about breakfast as I am, you will probably love it!

Here’s a look at what I would serve if I could have my very own brunch spot…

……..someday!

Magdalena’s Party **

Thames 1795

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Palermo SOHO

11.4833.9127

CHECK OUT THE MENU!

Brunch, in the United States, is defined as a weekend ritual for twenty-something year olds (typically New Yorkers), who gather to share their first meal of the day after a long night of drinking and debauchery. The meal occurs any time after noon and before 5 pm on a Saturday and/or Sunday, where the participants recap the events of the previous night over several rounds of moderately priced Bloody Mary’s and mimosas. Brunch is not just a meal; it is an urban cultural affair. In fact, people are so devoted to this culinary phenomenon, that there are entire websites dedicated to finding the best brunch spots in most major US cities—who can make the best eggs Benedict, the biggest blueberry pancakes, the most delicious omelette, and the perfect Bloody Mary. And don’t even get a New Yorker started on the best bagels and egg sandwiches!! Oy Vey!

I consider myself a fairly loyal “brunchee” at home, and after having a rather long and drunken night last night, I decided that the best way to embark on a new day was by starting it off with a proper brunch. Luckily, the brunch concept is catching on here in Buenos Aires and a ton of search results came back, much to my surprise. I was looking at the list of restaurants, when I spotted the words “breakfast buritto” nestled into the description of a place called Magdalena’s Party. My heart jumped and the decision was made, we were going to Magdelena’s!

We got a table right away, and began drooling over the very Americanized breakfast menu, which included items such as “American Diner Special,” belgian waffles, and bagels with lox. My pupils were dialating by the second. We started off with a couple of Mimosas and Bloody Mary’s, which I thought were all very good. The mimosas here are made with fresh squeezed orange juice–a classy step up from Tropicana back home! And the Bloody Mary was very tasty, especially taking into account that Argentines are typically very shy with the pepper shaker and this drink had whole peppercorns at the bottom! Like little nuggets of gold!

Next we placed our food order, which entailed two orders of the Cali Coast Omelette—a delicate crepe stuffed with eggs, black beans, bacon and cheese, and topped with pico de gallo, avocado and sour cream, served with a side of home fries–(45 pesos) and one order of Blueberry Pancakes (30 pesos). Then after placing our order, we waited. And we waited. And we waited.

We continued waiting for a total of one and a half hours before the first dish was brought to the table. And that was just the first dish. The second one didn’t come out until 15 minutes later, and then the third one about 5 minutes after that. Therefore, we all ate at seperate times and without an appology from the server, who acted as if this kind of service was normal and acceptable.

Now I have worked in restaurants all of my life, and I understand that sometimes there are just “off days” and the server can’t do anything to icnrease the producitivty of the kitchen. However, I also believe that a server acts as the face of the restaurant and needs to honestly and appologically inform customers of problems that occur. It is amazing what a smile (and free round of mimosas) can do to alleiviate the agony of a long wait for food.

This being said, I am torn with my review of Magdalena’s Party becasue the food was not bad, but the service was abomidable. My Cali Coast Omelette was actually pretty good. I thought it could have used a little bit more egg inside of the crepe, but the general flavor was tasty and the home fries were done perfectly. In fact, the home fries were really, really good now that I think back.

The pancakes were also nice, although the server forgot to mention that they were out of blueberries that day and just shrugged her shoulders and walked away when asked about it. And getting syrup was like pulling teeth…quite a painstaking task.

Overall, I probably won’t go back to Magdalena’s becasue I had such a bad service experience and often the service is what you remember the most when the food is just average. But again, I understand that restaurants have bad days, and had the wait not been so long and the service not so bad, I would have enjoyed the meal and the atmosphere. Try Magdeaena’s Party if you have a lot of free time to kill, becasue your Brunch might turn into a Drunch if you have the same waiting experience that I did.

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Filed under Buenos Aires Restaurants, International Restaurants

Tagged as Argentina, Bagel, Bar, Bloody Mary, Breakfast, Brunch, Buenos Aires, Cocktails, Eggs, Lunch, Mexican, Mimosas, Omelet, Palermo, Palermo SOHO, Pancakes

February 11, 2011 · 8:55 PM

{ Best Ever 3 Egg Garden Omelet }

3 Egg Omelet with Sauteed Spinach, Onions, Asparagus, Jalapenos, and Red Bell Peppers

I have decided to dedicate my body to an experiment for the following 30 days. And originally, I didn’t know if I would disclose this information on my blog or not, but I have decided that I need to since it will be drastically altering my diet and consequently my altering blog! I figured that I might as well be open and honest with my readers, and maybe even some of you can benefit from the findings and will want try it too. I’ll be the guinea pig though, because it is a pretty ridiculous theory that even I’m skeptical about. So what is the experiment, you ask?

For one month, I will not eat sugar, fruit, dairy, or carbohydrates for six days out of the week, followed by a 7^th day of binge eating whatever I want until I go into a coma (told you it was ridiculous!). I didn’t make it up though. It is called the slow-carb diet and it comes from the book titled The 4 Hour Body, which is currently a best seller and causing quite a stir in the fitness/weight loss/health world. And how could it not? It goes against everything that every other diet tells you to do. It contradicts everything that I thought was healthy, but rather than be a naysayer that dismisses it as sheer ludicrous, I figured that I would give it a shot and put it to the test!

But before I go on, let me put you all at ease. I’m not trying to lose weight. No, I don’t want be the 80-pound girl with the eating habits of a 400-pound man! Rather, I am trying to lower my percent body fat and build lean muscle. You know, erase the evidence of all the French fries from my hips and thighs and build toned arms. However, the average person that engages in this diet sees a 20-pound body reshaping, between weight loss and total inches lost, in just….drumroll, please….1 month!

For me, this will also be a major test of self-control…probably one of the hardest things I have ever attempted, actually. I can resist the temptation of a lot of things, but I never deny myself food. I eat what I want, when I want. But this will force me to change and think about what I am putting into my body, which will be good for me…and my body!

In addition to the diet, I am also following a fairly rigorous work out schedule because again, my goal is to put on lean muscle. The book claims that you only need 4 hours of solid work out per week (hence the title of the book), but I will probably be engaging in a bit more than that. I will use the blog as my food journal to record how I feel, what I eat, and my progress. Since I will be on such a strict diet, I will probably be eating in more and posting more recipes than usual, but watch out on binge day!!! I will probably have 5 or 6 posts on those nights, as I plan to eat my way fit! Ohh, and if you’re wondering what the purpose of the binge day is, it is used to increase your metabolism and of course satisfy all the cravings you have developed over the week!

So….let the journey begin! Today I started my morning with a delicious 3 egg omelet with sautéed spinach, mushrooms, onions, jalepenos, asparagus, and red bell pepper. I used the whole egg because egg whites don’t really appeal to me, and this is allowed in the diet as long as they are organic eggs. I’ve never had organic eggs, or brown eggs for that matter (apparently all organic eggs are brown eggs), but they tasted the same as white ones….just cost me twice as much. The secret to a perfect omelet is fluffy eggs. Normally, I add a drizzle of milk when I scramble the eggs, but since I am on this diet and restricted from dairy, I used a little bit of cream of tartar instead. You only need a little pinch (very little!!!), which makes the eggs super fluffy. The hardest part about making this omelet today was not putting in any cheese, which is my favorite part!! The thought of no ooey gooey cheese had me in a depression, but surprisingly I didn’t really notice the difference!! I was amazed. I think my associating cheese with eggs had just become habit. I couldn’t imagine one without the other, but I was pretty okay with it today. Of course, I used a ton of Tabasco sauce…but there is nothing against hot sauce in my diet….so spice on.

Greenstreet ****

Eggs Scrambled with Salsa served with Tomatoes and Toast

305.444.0244

3468 Main Hwy, Coconut Grove 33133

CHECK OUT THE MENU!

When I wake up hung-over, there are two things that I always crave: (1) a large glass of ice water; and (2) an omlette from Greenstreet. In my opinion, Greenstreet serves the best all around (and most reasonably priced) breakfast in the Miami area. Of course there are incredible brunches at the Biltmore and various South Beach hotels, but those are like $60 per person and unfeasible for every day (for a college kid no less!). Greenstreet on the other hand, will only cost you about $10 for breakfast and it is incredible…the omlettes especially! They are 3 egg omlettes cooked to perfection (not runny) served with your choice of grits, tomatoes, or home fries. I don’t care if you are on a diet or don’t normally order potatoes, but you MUST try these home fries because they are the best I have EVER tasted! You also get your choice of a toasted French baguette (my personal favorite), English muffin, rye toast, or bagel. It is a very substantial amount of food for the price. However, the best part about Greenstreet is that breakfast is conveniently served every day until 2:45 in the afternoon, which allows me some time to sleep off my hangover. But for those of you who can’t kick the hangover before getting there, Greenstreet supposedly makes some of the best Bloody Marys to help beat it. I wouldn’t know personally because I’m not a Bloody Mary fan, but look around on a Saturday or Sunday morning and almost everyone is sipping either a coffee or Bloody Mary so they are popular.

If you find yourself getting to Greenstreet past the breakfast hour, don’t worry because they also have delicious salads. My favorite is the Roman Salad with spring mix, feta, and cherry tomatoes, tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette. I always ask for grilled jerk chicken on top too, which is really my favorite part of any salad I order there. The chicken is thinly sliced down on a diagonal and is always served warm. They have regular grilled chicken too, but I encourage you to get the jerk because the spice rub is so flavorful. Also, this is a restaurant that you don’t have to ask for dressing on the side because their salads are dressed to perfection…always.

Another one of my favorite things at Greenstreet are the chips with guacamole and salsa, which are great to start. The chips are homemade and lightly salted, and the guacamole has a terrific lemony flavor (there is always tension at the table when it comes down to who will eat the last few chips). For a hot entrée, the Mushroom Triangole is very good. It is mushroom filled ravoli served in a creamy porcini sauce…yumm! The Chicken Vegetable Tofu Stir-Fry is also awesome and a really unique spin on stir-fry because the sauce it not your typical brown soy based sauce, but instead a light curry flavored sauce. Just make sure that your hungry though because the portion is huge!! And last but not least, is the Zucchini Basil Soup which is a must try. It tastes like nothing that I have ever had before and the distinct flavor of basil is really light and fresh. It looks super creamy (as you can tell by the photo above) but surprisingly no cream or butter is used! Its a great healthy comfort food. Basically, the only thing that I would not order from Greenstreet is the Chicken Provencial because the tomato sauce is not very authentic or homemade tasting, but everything else that I have tried here has been great.

As for the atmosphere of the place, on a nice day it could not be better. Greenstreet has a lot of outdoor seating on a nice corner in Coconut Grove so it is prime for people watching and enjoying the weather. There are large umbrellas to provide shade and the tables are comfortable. The inside of the place is much smaller and feels more like a library or a study with the large bookcases that adorn the walls (its cozy), I prefer to sit outside so try to go on a nice day or night. BUT….if you want to sit outside on a nice Saturday or Sunday (especially for breakfast), be prepared to wait up to an hour for a table. Good things are worth the wait though!!!

If you do go at night you’ll find that Greenstreet also has a great bar scene, and they are known for the red velvet couches lining the sidewalk that bring the lounge atmosphere outdoors. The mojitos are great and all drinks are half off after 11, so it’s very cheap (like $5 a drink).

Overall, Greenstreet is one of my favorite places to go in Miami because you can stay all day there and have something going on (I once did stay for 8 hours straight with a group of friends, ordering breakfast, then drinks, and then lunch and it was a blast!!). Ohhh and on top of it all, the service is great so you cannot go wrong!!