E-Festive French Toast - Chez Cora

E-Festive French Toast -"Rediscover a childhood favourite, festively dressed for the holiday season. How can you resist out Festive French toast? Imagine delicious cranberry and orange bread dipped in French toast batter, plus melted brie cheese, crispy bacon, topped with an egg, then garnished with clementines and sweet cranberries." - $9.95 (CAD)

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CJ doesn't quite recall this dish being a "childhood favourite", but maybe it is out east in La Belle Province?

If this dish wasn't "For a limited time" this review would be on the "1990's harvest", another well portioned, fruit-laden meal. But, alas, CJ decided to go against the norm and ordered the french toast dish.

The restaurant was busy, just like any other Sunday morning. The service was friendly and prompt. The table and cutlery were all clean.

The presentation of the dish is pretty important at Chez Cora's - in fact, EVERY dish/drink is plated quite well. Lots of colour and fruit to tease the eye.

The bread is what really makes the dish (why doesn't more bread come with fruit?) - well, that and the brie cheese. It smelled delicious. And the cranberry sauce! Ho, ho, let CJ tell you about it! No, it's not like the cranberry sauce you get out of a can for your turkey dinner, but it was a sweet glaze that was layered onto the toast with bits of clementines added in for good, citrus-y measure.

When you get a hunk of bread, cheese and egg all on one forkful, and manage to dip it in to the cranberry glaze... well, you know that you have a very good breakfast then.

The photographic evidence:

The grade: 8.5 out of 10.0. Solidly an honours grade...


PS: turns out you only need to lay out about $500,000 to $800,00 (CAD) for a franchise opportunity. CJ keeps trying to tell good ol' Alabama (you may remember him from here) to set up a franchise in the Queen's City (AKA "The Paris of the Prairies", but nothing has graced the business pages of the Leader Post to indicate that such a new business venture has come to fruition... The fickle diners of Regina continue to wait...

Highlands Platter - Highlands Kitchen

Coffee - $2.50 (CAD)
Highlands Platter - 2 cheesy scrambled eggs, ham, sauerkraut, buttermilk biscuit, preserves, choice of salad or potato hash - $15.00 (CAD)

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Realistically, they should have had a nice big "гарне харчування" sign. It wasn't GREAT food, but it was pretty good. And you could soon see the Ukrainian influence soon after you walk in the front door...

The setting was small, wooden floors,drafty as we were near the front door, a little cramped, and busy (it was a Saturday morning). Menu was very simple, white paper with black/grey lettering with a simple description for each dish. Yes, yes! Pyrogy and cabbage rolls did make an appearance! It was like a Fall Supper (Breakfast?) dream come true!

But, CJ didn't go to fill his belly with comfort food from the motherland. Nay. It was breakfast food to induce winning picks in the weekly NFL Proline Syndicate (Fuck you, Aaron Rogers for losing to the Colts! Where's your championship belt now???...CJ has always disliked the Packers, ever since they stole Reggie White...) So eggs it must be!

The presentation of the dish was good. It wasn't a lot of food, and for $15.00 (CAD), it was a little less than I was expecting. Regardless, the dishes came out in a timely fashion.

CJ ate the eggs and ham first. They were pretty good, although the eggs were just a tad runny. Maybe they could have set for another minute or two on the stove. The potatoes, on the other hand, were very tasty, and cooked to perfection. Honestly, a grade of 8.7 for the potatoes (or should CJ say "potatoes and sweet potatoes"?). Yummy. And the preserves and biscuit finished it off. The jam seemed fresh and full of flavour, while the biscuit had that soft, warm, recently baked feeling to it. Pleasant to the palate.

Supposedly there's been some good reviews for the restaurant in the past... "Top 10 Best New Restaurants in Canada 2009"? Really? Finally, we can say that Air Canada got something right...

The photographic evidence:

Overall grade: and 8.1 out of 10.0. It would have been a little higher had it not been an expensive breakfast.

Chocolate Banana-Stuffed French Toast

1/3 cup chocolate-hazelnut sandwich spread
8 slices D'Italiano Whole Wheat Thick Slice Italian Style Bread
2 large firm ripe bananas
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter

Chef's note: Recipe was halved

***

Isn't it amazing where we get our inspiration? For instance, I was shopping in the bakery section of our local Superstore, where I happened upon some decent-looking bread. Something a little different than what I'd usually get, and I picked up this Italiano whole wheat bread, and lo and behold: A recipe! Well, shit. I had to get it. And the recipe above is the recipe contained on the bottom of the bread bag.

I know I mentioned just a short while ago that I wasn't too thrilled with egg-dipped sandwiches, but I had to give this a try. I've only had Nutella once or twice in my life, and for this recipe I got the President's Choice proxy for it. It's alright. It's not good enough to put in ice cream or anything, but I figured it would do the trick.

The dish is very quick to make. No problems with assembly or preparing the ingredients at all.

As far as taste, it was okay. I had it for supper a few nights ago. It seems more like a breakfast dish, but honestly, I'd rather just have regular French Toast with some sexy Grand Marnier berry compote. It tastes decent. If there's a next time, maybe a little more chocolate spread on the bread?

The photograph:

No. No pickles here.

The grade: 6.8 out of 10.0. The grade in honour of the jersey number of his holy hockey mulletness.... god, is that jersey for real? That's worse than the Yorkton Pylon's bantam jersey from back in 1985. DREADFUL. Downright embarrassing. No wonder he's hiding in Omsk...

Breakfast Combo with Bacon & Swedish Coffee - Ikea

Breakfast Combo -$1.00 (all prices are in CAD) - this dish was 2 mini-sausage, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns
Bacon - $0.99 for 3 small pieces of bacon
Swedish Coffee - $1.00

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Well, this was my first foray into the cafeteria over at Ikea. Not only was the meal inexpensive, but we also had our dishes served up by both Linus and Magnus, as they had their job-training that day, as their final shift for their current jobs end on Sunday. Yes, it was quite the celebrity event: all we were missing was Mats Sundin and Beaker helping out the Swedish Chef in the kitchen...

There really isn't much to say about this breakfast. It was cold, miniscule, and uninspiring. Not unlike the Edmonton Oilers of 2010-2011. Or the Edmonton Oilers of 2009-10. Or the Edmonton Oilers of... well, never mind. But, it was pretty cheap.

The cafeteria was busy, but we were able to get some seats with a beautiful stunning view of the South Edmonton Common parking lot. We really lucked out.

Here is the photographic evidence:

You can see Chef Jeremiah above, pointing  to the "deluxe" breakfast. No breaking the bank or pancakes for him! Notice the left hand trembling before his first morning coffee? Those were difficult times...

And here is the dish:

Grade: 5.8 out of 10. But can you really go wrong for $3.14?

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

250 mL milk
125 mL frozen strawberries
1/2 banana
50 mL plain yoghurt
15 mL liquid honey

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This is a pretty easy, quick and refreshing drink. I don't know why I added "breakfast" to the labels, but I think it would make a suitable "drink-on-the-go" that you could take with you on your way (walking, driving, riding?) to work. Just slide that into your travel mug and away you go! Enjoy it's cool freshness. Your tongue will soon smack those lips of yours after that first quaff. Soon, you will be a greedy little piggy and slurp down the rest of your drink. Without ever thinking of sharing, of course.

If you like your beverages not too sweet, then this is for you. While it certainly has the look of a milkshake, the taste is much more tame.

The whole "blueberry versus strawberry debate" won't be discussed here, but Chef Jeremiah highly recommends you try this recipe substituting some blueberries in for your strawberries at least once. Then tell me which you prefer.

I might also suggest some low/zero lactose milk. I was told this was a milk option at Starbucks a few weeks ago, but I keep forgetting to look for it at Safeway.

Prognosis: delicious! A commendable 7.9 out of 10 for a 2-minute effort. Kudos!

Breakfast Enchiladas

2 cups finely chopped cooked ham (black forest ham)
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper
2 tbsp. oil
8 flour tortillas (7 inch)
2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar
4 eggs
2 cups light cream
1 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2-3 drops hot pepper sauce (I used tobasco sauce)

salsa
sour cream

Chef's note: I halved he recipe above.

***

I've had this recipe for about four years now. It's been in my binder ever since it was given to me and on Sunday night I finally dusted it off.

It's only been in the last nine or ten years that the Chef has ordered and even eaten egg dishes. Indeed, my tastes have changed.

Hmmm. I would say I was a little low on the green onion mix - the dish was a little low on the vegetable quotient. Otherwise it was pretty tasty. A savoury dish. The ham took care of that.

Certain things I'd change next time would change the green onions to spanish onions. Maybe even substituting the ham with chorizo sausage? All this in addition to including some guacamole, of course. :)

The dish plated just hours ago...

The grade: a respectable 7.2 out of 10.

Eggs Benedict - Café Upper Crust

Eggs Benedict - 2 poached eggs on an English muffin, with back bacon & Hollandaise Sauce; hashbrowns & fresh fruit garnish - $11.25 CAD

Chai Latté - $3.75 CAD

***

Yes, I met up with a few of my AIMCo ex-corkers again. This time for breakfast. Yes Felix and Kim (the woman who ate my sandwich). We just chewed the fat about their work, my new work, my CASB results, winter tires, Christmas holidays and nothing about the New Orleans Saints. That was surprising.

It seems like the Upper Crust is in an older building. In need of a bit of an update. Like new windows and/or a new furnace, because it was darn cold in here (it was a balmy -26Celsius outside...) and my nipples were harder than diamonds. It's a fairly open dining room, and a little noisy considering that the average age of the patrons had to be about 50 years old.

I've been hankering some eggs benny for some time, so my decision was made moments after I opened the menu.

The food came within a reasonable time frame. It looked delicious. But it was cool - maybe it was due to the poor climate control or the fact that our waitress was, as Felix would say "on a Sunday pace on a Saturday". Disappointing. Regardless, it was still quite tasty - the Hollandaise sauce met the Chef's approval - just enough lemon juice to please the palate.... The fruit salad/garnish was definitely not made of "premium fruit", but those melons were still refreshing. Not a lot of hashbrowns, and they were cool but they were still seasoned well enough. Felix complained about his bacon - guess he's not a fan of Canadian back bacon...

Yeah, the waitress had some very nice legs (the Chef would give those an 8.2/10) it's just too bad she/they weren't coming over to check up on us often enough. Seriously, considering how busy it was (it wasn't), I don't know why it took so long to get our drinks or to get our(my) coffees refilled.

Here's the evidence:

Yes - if you look closely enough you may notice some food in my ketchup, but that's because some must have flown out of Kim's mouth onto my plate because she eats like this guy. I'm only kidding... well, half-kidding.

Overall I'd give my Upper Crust breakfast a 7.0 out of 10.

Elm Café

Early Sandwich $8 (CAD)
Americano $2.5 (CAD)

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Well, my friend's ex-coworker suggested we go to Elm Café for breakfast. I'm just guessing their ex-coworker's, but I'm not too sure. 

Anyway, this little place is just off of Jasper in the Oliver area. It's probably only 80 square feet, with about 20 square feet designated as eating space. This place is small, with a correspondingly small menu.

I haven't had an Americano for quite some time, so I ordered one. I was just a little displeased. I can't quite put my finger on it. Was it too bitter?

The sandwich was okay - it had eggs, spinach, ham and cheese in it. But for $8 (CAD)? Really? I mean it was okay. Not too filling, and, but not value for your hard-earned sestertii. Nothing that really wows you at all. Not a lot of flavour.

Overall, I'd give it a 6 out of 10. Mildly disappointing, but perhaps our hearts were misguided - as it wasn't really a breakfast spot. It was more of a "I've-got-to-walk-the-dog-this-morning-and-I-need-a-coffee-and-I'm-in-the-neighbourhood" kinda place.

It is what it is.

Regardless, you can feast your eyeballs on this: