Vegan Mofo: Healthy Spirit, Manchester

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Day Seventeen:  Make (or Eat) a Traditional, Local Dish

Here’s a prompt that fits in beautifully with my theme for MoFo:  what is more traditional than a Full English?!

This is a tolerably healthy take on the full breakfast from Healthy Spirit, a nice little cafe at the back of a health shop in Didsbury.  It was just a ten minute walk from my old flat, and I miss it dearly!  Breakfast comprised of homemade beans, a big juicy mushroom, wilted spinach, tasty avocado and a bubble and squeak patty.  I loved that it was a twist on the usual breakfast, though initially I was worried that it wouldn’t be enough to fill me up.  The beans were really tasty, and you can’t go wrong with the beautiful simplicity of avocado or mushrooms.  I’d expected the bubble and squeak to be the highlight, but found the patty a wee bit cold – if it had been piping hot, it would probably have been my favourite element.

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The breakfast was £6.95, including toast and a brew.  The toast was delicious sourdough bread from local Uprising Bakery, and it was very good.  The ketchup was tasty when I dipped my knife in, but I’m not really sure how it was intended to be eaten – the thought of ketchup in the same vicinity as toast is enough to turn my stomach, and even my fellow, who will mix all kinds of food, merely had the ketchup separately.  Much better was the other pot: tell them you’re vegan and they give you a mixture of coconut and olive oil, which was spreadable and tasty.

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And the chai tea I went for – the cafe’s own brew, available to buy right there – was really nice too, and accompanied by a little bottle of coconut milk which went down a treat.

Value for money:  it doesn’t look like a lot of food for the price.  I know avocados aren’t cheap, and I didn’t really mind paying for good fresh food, but still, for £6.95 there wasn’t much.  3/5

Speed of service:  I find it exceptionally difficult to leave the house without having eaten, so if I go out for breakfast I need my food to be served rapidly.  We went on a week day, right at the 10am opening time, and as the only customers we were scoffing within 15 minutes.  Very pleasing!  4/5

Quality of cooking:  the bubble and squeak patty was a little cold, but everything else was spot on, and it was all home made food.  3.5/5

Creativity:  it felt really fresh and a nice twist on the usual, somewhat greasy cooked breakfast.  For being unique and a touch lighter, and for the sensational bread, it’s earned a high mark.  Just a smidgen more food would have been nice!  4.5/5

Total:  15/20

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Vegan Mofo: Tri Ocasci

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Day Sixteen:  What’s your Favourite Late Summer Food?

Last weekend I popped along to Brno, the Czech Republic’s second largest city.  There were slim pickings for vegan breakfasts, until I sent a Facebook message to the good people at Tri Ocasci and they informed me that they have a daily all-you-can-eat vegan breakfast buffet for 50kroner (under £2).  It was warm and sunny, it was late summer, and it was a very good breakfast, so it just about fits this prompt!

It was the very essence of simplicity:  they did a few things, and they did them well!  There was a bread basket with slices of a few different kinds of homemade bread, including this nice brown one that I had and an even better yellow one with seeds scattered on the top.  These were accompanied by homemade strawberry jam and a really good coconutty spread.  Lovely!  There was also a salad plate (obviously I avoided that, but everything was good and fresh), some delicious, marinated, garlicky tofu and this yellow concoction that tasted kind of like coleslaw:  creamy, cold and mayonnaisey.  Everything was freshly made, regularly replenished, and easy to peck on.  We had two helpings, and were more than satisfied.

Coffee refills were included in the breakfast, but I stuck to tea.  My camomile brew came in this humongous pot, and was accompanied by a little vegan heart-shaped biscuit, which made for a lovely breakfast dessert.  While the food was all-vegan, Dr HH’s latte automatically came with dairy milk, so vegans should probably specify if they want soy.

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Tri Ocasci is such a lovely place to have a lazy breakfast.  The atmosphere is really laid-back and friendly, everything is simple and welcoming.  Our fellow patrons had dogs curled up beside them on the sofa or were working on their laptops or reading peacefully by themselves.  It was such a nice space, with mismatched furniture, origami cranes and exciting light fittings dangling from the ceiling, and (my absolute favourite thing) vintage crockery.  Go to Brno, and go now!

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Vegan Mofo: Pancakes Aplenty

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Day Fifteen: OMG, Barack Obama is coming over because he knows you make awesome vegan food! What are you going to make?

It’s a classic technique of students learning English as a foreign language:  tell them they’ve made a mistake, and they immediately say, “Oh, but it’s fine in American English.”  More often than not, what they’ve said is not fine in any approximation of English, but they love having that sneaky little possibility to question my authority.  In fact, teaching English as a foreign language to students immersed in Hollywood films and American song lyrics, I often find myself up against American English.  “Why did you spell ‘colour’ with a ‘u’?”, they innocently ask me.  “Why did you say ‘vitamin’, not ‘v-I-tamin’?” they wonder.  “Should I say ‘torch’ or ‘flashlight’?”  On the defensive, I sigh and jokingly tell them that British English is always, always better.  Nervermind that the spelling in American English more closely resembles the actual pronunciation of the words:  we didn’t intend to make this easy for you!  American English has become my nemesis.

The one thing I will allow the Americans, though, is that they get their pancakes spot on.  So, if Barack Obama were to pay a visit, I would serve him up some wonderfully thick and fluffy American-style pancakes.  But which recipe to trust?

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The first ones I tried were the Fluffy Pillow Pancakes from Isa Does It, which I now usually make with chocolate chips.  I made them significantly bigger and flatter than the great Isa, but that just meant there was more to love!

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Equally successful were the carrot cake pancakes, from the same book.  They take a bit more effort (is grating carrot not the worst?), but are definitely worth it.  I basically rotated those two recipes, until I delved into Vegan Secret Supper for my cookbook challenge.

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I used two different waffle recipes to make lovely thick, flavoursome pancakes.  The double chocolate ones are of course decadent, but the peanut butter oat pancakes are my favourite:  that sticky smack of peanut butter, along with a hint of chocolate from the cocoa powder.  Pancakes remain my ultimate indulgent breakfast.  Fit for a president?  Why not!

Vegan Secret Supper Peanut Butter Oat Pancakes (12)

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Vegan Mofo: Iydea, Brighton

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Day Fourteen:  Share Something Vegan (and Delicious) with a Non-Vegan

Mr HH – sorry, Dr HH – isn’t quite vegan, yet. He is vegetarian and doesn’t eat eggs, so he’s not far off, and I’m quietly confident that he’ll give up cheese one day. But he’s the non-vegan with whom I share 90% of my dining experiences, and he joined me for the vegan breakfast at Iydea in Brighton back in March.

Iydea is just opposite Wai Kika Moo Kau and has quite a similar atmosphere.  It’s cosy inside, and the staff are super friendly and nice, and there’s some lovely artwork on the walls.  But it’s all about the food, of course!

We were very excited to try a cooked breakfast which listed avocado in the ingredients, and you can see a lovely mushroom, tomato and avocado stir-fry on the side of the plate.  It was really tasty, and so beautifully seasoned – I like a place that isn’t shy with the salt and pepper.  As there are tomatoes in the stir-fry, I don’t think it was necessary to have not one but two cooked tomatoes on the side.  Does anyone actually look forward to them?  I wish I’d had the sense to switch them for something else!

The vegetarian big breakfast comes with eggs, and we’d been expecting the vegan version to have a tofu scramble instead, so I was caught off guard when they waiter asked what I wanted as a replacement.  Fortunately I recovered my wits enough to get an extra hash brown, but it is a bit disappointing that there isn’t a tasty stand-in.  That said, the hash browns were the highlight of the meal – so crispy, and I think I detected a hint of chives in there too.  Lovely!  The sausages were surprisingly bland.  It’s nice to see homemade sausages on a menu, and the outside was lovely and crisp, but they needed some more herbs and seasoning and the texture was a little dry and crumbly.

It was just as well there were some beans on hand!  These were smoky beans, and the hint of paprika was really tasty (though my fellow felt they needed more punch).  Alongside the main plate was a slice of toast, which was nice but, you know, only one slice.

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Of course, I went for a chai hot chocolate accompaniment which was heavy on top of the breakfast, but worth it.

Speed of service:  it’s a canteen-style set up, so all the hot food is there ready and waiting to be piled onto plates.  However, the speediness here meant that the main course arrived before the toast or the hot drinks, which is never ideal, so we’ll knock the score down a notch.  4/5

Value for money:  it was £6.95 for the big breakfast, and I’d say that’s about right – it was a hearty plate of food!  4/5

Quality of cooking:  the sausages were disappointing, but everything else was tasty good!  4/5

Creativity:  there were a pleasing number of homemade touches, making this a breakfast that can’t be duplicated in any other cafe.  The stir-fry was a lovely original touch, and the smoky beans were a definite winner for me.  But why ruin it all with two tomato halves?!  4/5

Total:  16/20

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Vegan Mofo: Mango Smoothie

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Day Thirteen:  It’s Kitchen Tour Time

This is the MoFo prompt I was the most excited about, because who doesn’t love nosing around other people’s kitchens?  So in the interest of fairness, I’m playing along too, and throwing in a smoothie to keep it breakfast-related.  This is where all the breakfast magic happens.  This is HH HQ.

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We’ve only been living here for about a month.  We found it two days after we arrived in Prague, and moved in two days after that, which was better than we’d expected.  It’s the biggest, nicest kitchen I’ve ever had, and I love it.  It looks like there’s loads of space, but actually the sloping ceiling to the right means that we don’t get much use out of that area (and I will let you imagine how many times I bang my head on there every day).

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The whole room feels really light and spacious as we have three skylights and a dining area as well.

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Here’s the food, including my melted coconut oil – it was very hot for the first two weeks we lived here.  I’m still getting to grips with the shops of Prague and figuring out where to buy my essentials, but I think I’ve made a decent start at stocking up the pantry.

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We brought quite a lot of herbs and spices over with us from Manchester so we could get straight into cooking.  Here they are all lined up and pretty.

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And we have a great big fridge!  So big we haven’t got it fully stocked yet.  There’s a lot of bottled water in there, not that we are fans of it in places with drinkable tap water.  These are just bottles that we refill and keep chilled at all times to take on hikes, cool us down during the heatwave earlier and provide for us when the water supply cuts out.  This has happened a few times, most notably on Tuesday when our entire area woke up without water.  Dr HH felt vindicated for keeping water in the fridge at all times, and I felt vindicated for always filling the kettle before bed.  I can start the day without showering, but I can’t start the day without a brew!  Fortunately Prague has a great selection of dairy-free milks and yoghurts, and we always have a big pot of food for packed lunches and a pile of home-made, foil-wrapped snack bars to sustain us at work.  And chilled falafel, because I am a vegan.

All in all, it’s a great place to cook and eat and make breakfast every day.  The oven is my nemesis, though.  It’s the first time I’ve had an electric cooker, and I find it frustrating to use the hob, which is unbearably slow to change temperature.  The oven is the worst though, because the symbols on the knobs have completely faded, leaving us no idea what the settings are, or the temperature.  It’s taken some trial and error, a tepid shepherd’s pie and some singed granola, but we seem to be getting there.

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Still, if you can prepare food without the oven in the summer heat, so much the better!  I brought my little blender over with me from home, and I’m very glad of it.  Here’s a nice summery breakfast smoothie, combining some good tropical flavours.  You just need to chop a mango, peel a banana, scoop in about 120g yoghurt (coconut yoghurt is best, of course) and pour in 2/3 cup of coconut milk.  Blend and drink!

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Vegan Mofo: The Best Breakfast Cookbook

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Day Twelve:  Tell us about your Favourite Cookbook

It probably looks from my posts so far as if I only ever eat out at breakfast time.  Most of the time, of course, we have a normal, quiet breakfast at home, sometimes shop-bought muesli or cereal, but more often something from a cookbook.  The three books I use most often for breakfasts are Oh She Glows, Isa Does It and Salad Samurai and I’ve been struggling to decide which of these three is my favourite.  After long agonising, I’m giving that prize to…

Oh She Glows!

Not only have the recipes been consistently delicious, but I also make them more frequently than the fancier options in Isa Does It or the fruitier ones in Salad Samurai.  Savoury porridge and the nutty granola are two regulars on our breakfast table.

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The granola is nice and easy to make (as long as you can work out your oven settings – our new oven is a bit of a mystery still), and has a lovely combination of oats, nuts and seeds.  I always make it with cranberries and usually serve it with good fruity yoghurt.

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I’ve only had this baked apple oatmeal once, but it was almost like a dessert for breakfast – and I’m always in favour of that!

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The breakfast scramble will never be as good as Dr HH’s scramble, of course, but this is a really nice combination, and lighter than the usual Full English.  It was also my first encounter with avocado on toast, which, as most vegans know, is amazing.

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And avocado makes another appearance in the savoury porridge, which I also make quite frequently.  This is a great, fast, savoury breakfast.  The real challenge is finding a suitable cracker:  the crunchier, the better.  So far I haven’t found anything in Prague to rival the beauty in the photo, which I used to get from Eighth Day in Manchester.

I’ve finally got myself a copy of Vegan Brunch, so I’m hoping to branch out into the world of omelettes and baked goods as well soon and make breakfast even more exciting.  Any other breakfast cookbooks to recommend?

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Vegan Mofo: Fuel, Manchester

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Day Eleven:  Focus on a Nutrient

When talking about Full English breakfasts, there’s only one nutrient I’m interested in: carbs!

Fuel in Withington is a wonderful meat-free cafe/bar with quirky and fun decor (including the prettiest painted tabletop you’ll ever see) and a lovely, lively atmosphere.  Despite the fact that it’s open all day, I’ve only ever been in for breakfast.  And I’ve been a few times for that.  It’s good.

The full vegan breakfast is £5.70 and consists of a grilled tomato, some fried mushrooms, sweet potato wedges, spicy beans, two sausages, wilted spinach and some toast.  Homemade beans are a really nice touch on a cooked breakfast plate, though these ones are perhaps a smidgen too spicy for me, especially alongside the fiery wedges too.  The vegetarian breakfast includes hash browns, but I think it’s nice to have a twist on that with the wedges.  I’m always rather “meh” towards a grilled tomato, but the mushrooms were good, and the spinach was really nicely cooked. Crucially, the beans were not very juicy, so there was no contamination to worry about.  The toast was nice, but the bread wasn’t remarkable.  Still, it was a good generous portion.

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Alongside the usual hot drinks, Fuel also offers vegan smoothies.  I gambled on the mixed berry and passionfruit and it was so good and refreshing – it certainly cooled me down after the spicy elements of the breakfast!

Speed of service:  we were the first customers (it opens at 10am on the weekend) and it took about 10 minutes to rustle up our breakfasts.  Not bad at all!  4/5

Value for money:  a hearty plate of food for a reasonable price.  I was very satisfied and full after this.  5/5

Quality of Cooking:  the toast got cold a little too quickly, but I appreciate it’s difficult to juggle all the components of a dish like this.  4/5

Creativity:  there are some original elements here, like the spicy beans and wedges.  And some good vegetables as well, with the delicious spinach.  Nicer bread would have been, well, nice, but I can’t really grumble.  4/5

Total:  17/20

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Vegan Mofo: Alchemist Garden, Amsterdam

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Day Ten:  Something Blue

The “something blue” here could be the blueberries above. Or it could equally describe my feelings after eating the most disappointing breakfast ever.

During our Easter trip to Amsterdam, we went for what sounded like an exciting raw breakfast at Alchemist Kitchen.  I’m undecided about raw food – the desserts are good, the salads are, of course, packed with flavour, but wouldn’t some things just be better cooked?  I was feeling quite optimistic about breakfast though – foolishly, as it turned out.  We were the only customers at 10:30am, and I have to say on reflection that I’m not surprised it wasn’t jumping (in fairness, it was busy when we passed by that evening, and the pies did look pretty tempting).

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We ordered the 12 euro breakfast plate, which promised granola, coconut yoghurt, bread, jam and coconut butter, alongside the tea and smoothie of the day.  We were told when we ordered that there was no granola, so we’d get a fruit salad instead.  Obviously at that point we should have stood up and walked away.  Why didn’t we?!  It’s a question that still haunts me to this day.  But we stuck it out and waited with a sense of impending doom.  The tea arrived very quickly.  We were expecting something fruity or exotic as it was the tea of the day, but in actual fact it was pretty non-descript.  About ten minutes later the smoothie arrived, and we were invited to guess the flavours:  it was apple and cinnamon, and it was the highlight of the meal.  Alas, it was pretty small, and we still had a long wait for food, despite the fact that the cafe was empty (and the food was raw, so it’s not like it needed cooking).  We struggled to eke out our drinks long enough for the food to arrive.

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And this was our sad little plate, accompanied by the colourful bowl of fruit up top for us to share.  Whither the bread?  That’s the two dough balls.  They were about the size of ping-pong balls and were quite dense – I wasn’t a fan, though Dr HH said they were the best bit.  In the little ramekins we had some coconut oil (which I thought the best part), and a ‘jelly’ whose flavour we couldn’t quite place.  That big bowl is full of coconut yoghurt and topped with a solitary, unhappy little blueberry.  I love coconut yoghurt, I think it’s luxurious and tropical and everything good.  But this stuff was sour.  It was in desperate need of something to sweeten it.  Even with all the fruit toppled in, it just wasn’t good.

The cafe itself is a nice place – it’s pretty, bright and airy, with a good pile of board games and books.  And the other food did look good.  I just wouldn’t recommend it for breakfast.  Happy Cow Amsterdam has 22 listings for ‘Bagels and Beans’ around the city, and there was one just down the road on Overtoom – I really wish we’d gone there instead.  It’s nice to be adventurous and try something different, but maybe breakfast isn’t the time to gamble:  I’m a much nicer person on a full, happy belly.

 Speed of service:  very slow, considering how empty it was, and also poor pacing:  we scarcely had any drinks left by the time the food arrived.  Considering the only food preparation really should have been chopping the fruit, there wasn’t much of an excuse.  1/5

Value for money:  I could have bought a big pot of yoghurt and some fruit in the supermarket and enjoyed it more.  2/5

Quality of cooking:  obviously there was no cooking involved, but I will comment on the fact that the yoghurt was almost inedibly sour.  And minus points for not even having the key breakfast ingredient:  granola.  If you run out at breakfast the day before, make some more!  2/5

Creativity:  this is hard to judge.  I like the idea of a raw breakfast, and I was excited by the description of the plate before it arrived.  I’ll give it a three just for being different…although it turns out there’s a reason it’s not a classic.  3/5

Total:  8/20

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Vegan Mofo: Mod’s at Thirsty Scholar, Manchester

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Day Nine:  Most Retro Recipe

Spam is retro, isn’t it? I was certainly surprised to see it listed on the breakfast menu at The Thirsty Scholar in Manchester!

The Thirsty Scholar is located under a bridge and looks a bit daunting to a mild-mannered lady like me.  But it is worth venturing in, because the bar staff and Mod, the chef, are all really friendly and helpful, and the portions are gigantic.  It’s not refined, elegant food:  it’s big and greasy and hits the spot.  So while it wasn’t the best breakfast I’ve ever had, it was exactly what I expected, and I will have it again one day when the mood takes me.

It consisted of three toast triangles (one of the best serving sizes we’ve encountered), some mushrooms, roasted tomatoes (boo!), lots of beans, sausages, and spam.  The spam was a bit unnecessary, I thought – it was an extra bit of meat that didn’t really contribute much to the dish.  In fairness, I may just have been underwhelmed because I never tried real spam, so didn’t have much to compare it to.  The menu listed a solitary hash brown amongst the components, so imagine my delight on finding two hiding there under the toast!  They were delicious, as was the black pudding, which costs extra but is hard to resist when it’s available.

We went there on a gorgeous summer day and dined at the picnic tables outside.  The main drawback to Thirsty Scholar is that they don’t start serving breakfast till 1pm on Saturdays.  That’s just lunch, is it not?  I suspect it’s very much intended as hangover food:  the late start, the greasiness.  I imagine it would be very good for that.  For me it will be a rare indulgence.

Speed of service:  There weren’t many people there before us, so service was quick and really friendly.  4/5

Value for money:  Considering how cheap and cheerful the setting is, I feel like it could have been either a bit cheaper or a bit more plentiful (I’m basing this on how massive the helpings are for the burgers, chips and onion rings).  It was £7 for the breakfast, with an extra £1 for black pudding – but we got that £1 back as they were short of sausages and we only got 1 each.  3/5

Quality of cooking:  The mushrooms really let this dish down – there was no seasoning, and when I cut into them, they oozed liquid everywhere.  I would have preferred the black pudding to be sliced up and fried, as Mr HH always serves it nice and crispy when he takes to the kitchen, and it’s sublime.  2/5

Creativity:  The black pudding was a great addition, but the spam didn’t add much at all.  It was pretty much a bog standard fry-up, which is fine if that’s what you’re in the mood for.  2/5

Total:  11/20

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Vegan Mofo: Plevel, Prague

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UPDATE: this restaurant closed in 2020

Day Eight:  Reach out!  Make a new vegan friend and tell us about it!

When I visited Prague back in May, I popped into Veg Teg for a cake (and very nice it was, too). While I was eating, I got talking to the waitress and she recommended breakfast at Plevel. While she’s not a friend, she was a friendly vegan and links quite nicely to my next cooked breakfast!

There are four breakfast items on the menu in Plevel, but I knew I had to go for this one to add it to my Full English Championship.  Like the breakfast in Dophert, I’m not sure it’s quite as English as it could be – it’s very much the European take on an English breakfast, made healthier with that dollop of coleslaw.  Any Brit will tell you that there’s no need for a healthy element on this dish:  it’s supposed to be unashamedly greasy.  Besides that unnecessary touch, it was a good plate of food.

I always think roasted tomatoes are a bit superfluous when there are already beans on the plate, especially when there’s nothing potato based, as in this case.  Mushrooms, on the other hand, are always welcome, and these were nicely seasoned, which is something I always look out for.  The beans were just normal baked beans, and I dearly wish they hadn’t touched the scramble, but there wasn’t too much contamination.  The scramble was delicious and, once again, really well seasoned.  The sausages were tasty, and different from the usual ones we get in the UK, but a wee bit small.  And the bread was nice, but at risk of sounding greedy:  more, please!

Although this sounds critical, I really enjoyed it and will definitely order it again.  These are just the little tweaks I would make to bring it in line with my own personal ideal breakfast.  Plevel is probably my favourite restaurant in Prague, be it for breakfast, dinner or just a delicious raw cake.  As usual, this was food cooked to a high standard and it was really tasty.

Speed of service:  service is generally quite fast in this place, however busy they are.  When it was very quiet, I barely had to wait at all! 5/5

Value for money:  thanks to the wonderfully cheap standard of living in the Czech Republic, this works out at about £5, which is not too shabby.  4/5

Quality of cooking:  everything was well-prepared, and, most importantly, well-seasoned.  However, I like to be so full I don’t need to eat again until teatime after a Full English, so a bit more in the sausage/potato/bread department would have been nice.  3/5

Creativity:  I suppose the addition of coleslaw is creative, but it’s not the direction I would take an English breakfast in.  Less salad, more potato:  that’s my motto!  3/5

Total:  15/20

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