“from hell to breakfast, hold your fire”

I’m not a political person. In fact, I really loathe politics. This moment of clarity came after a short stint volunteering for the Victorian Greens a few years ago. During this time, I also discovered the true meaning of radical and that I’m not THAT left-wing after all. So I’m really surprised how into the 2008 US presidential election I am. I have such pre-election jitters at the moment that I’m in a perpetual state of nausea. Thank goodness it will all be over some time tomorrow, and I can decide whether or not to abandon my Australian and NZ PR….

So to get my mind off the election and ease my frayed nerves, I thought I would take J’s advice and write more about the cultural differences between Jacksonville and Melbourne. (J is not his real name since we all speak in code here in blogville.) After coffee, the next biggest difference that we have seen has been in the concept of going out for breakfast, one of H’s and my favorite pastimes. Honestly the two cities are polar opposites!

The staples of the Melbourne breakfast scene are:

• Option 1 -- Savory: Poached eggs on sourdough toast served with steamed spinach, sautéed mushrooms and half a roasted tomato. Maybe a hash brown thrown in if you order the “big brekkie”


• Option 2 – Sweet: Ricotta hotcakes with lemon curd and fresh berries


• Option 3 – Healthful: Fresh fruit with or without untoasted muesli topped with organic plain yogurt

And of course all options would be preceded by a perfectly made espresso or $3 latte. Now this was fine and dandy despite being rather limited in scope. But the downside was that 2 people couldn’t go out for such a breakfast for under $30 a pop.

Then the Melbourne foodies decided that these basic options were, well, a bit too basic. And our favorite haunts started serving more exotic dishes. There was the spicy Indonesian breakfast – steamed jasmine rice topped with mesclun, bean shoots, mint, cilantro, toasted peanuts in a sweet and sour soy dressing topped with 2 fried free-range eggs and sambal on the side. Or bagna cauda eggs served with toasted Turkish bread covered with roasted red pepper and olive stew, topped with 2 poached eggs and then slathered in a creamy anchovy and parsley Piedmontese sauce. (Words cannot describe how HARSH this is first thing in the morning, and I adore olives and anchovies!!) Or maybe a Middle Eastern take on the humble omelet with chickpeas, roasted red peppers, diced tomatoes and haloumi finished with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses and a sprinkle of ground sumac and coriander.

Towards the end of our stay in Melbourne, H and I were bemoaning this pretentious trend. Yes, I know that we’re both rather pretentious foodies ourselves, but these gourmet breakfasts just didn’t pair well with coffee, and prices jumped up to $40. That’s dear for a simple, just-rolled-out-of bed Sunday morning breakfast!

Back to Jacksonville where we have sampled two of the most popular breakfast joints. Our Melbourne standards now seem gourmet compared to the simplicity (sorry southern home-style cookin’) we have encountered. At the Fox, H got poached eggs that were over-cooked and served not on a piece of toast or English muffin but in a heaping mess in a bowl. There was a plain biscuit and what I guess was Jimmy Dean sausage on the side. I had rather ordinary eggs with cold, undercooked turkey sausage links and some rather loose grits. All white, tan and tasteless and not a green to be seen! It was cheap, but it was all about the quantity rather than the quality. The same with the Metro Diner – granted my waffle did come with a strawberry on top.

So in my breakfasts -- like my politics – I don’t like extremes. I guess H and I will continue searching for that perfect middle ground where quality is key and where a sprinkle of culinary imagination has dusted our plates.