Weekend Breakfast: The Brownstone

Any out of towner I have ever hosted has been taken to the Brownstone Diner for breakfast, and someone always gets the pancake wrap.  It's eggs, home fries, cheese, meats, whatever, wrapped up in a beautifully fluffy pancake.  I'm not one for pancakes or waffles for breakfast, but sometimes I just get in the mood, and the pancake wrap is one of the most amazing breakfast creations ever.  The Brownstone is known for their pancakes too, so it helps.

I always think of eating as buffet style, and I want a little bit of everything - even if it ends up biting me in the ass.  This morning I ordered a broccoli and mozzarella omelette with a side of home fries, wheat toast, and a short stack of pancakes.  Adam ordered a combo breakfast with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and waffles, so I got to get my morning meat fix in.  However, a short stack of pancakes proved to be too much for me, and I said to Adam that maybe if Americans toned down the portions of their six-egg omelette, home fries and pancake size, I would have been triumphant.

Until then, I will fail at my buffet style breakfast.

p.s. Do you know how Adam and I found out about the Brownstone?  Guy Fieri, the bleach blonde spikey haired backward sunglass wearing winner of the Food Network's The Next Food Network Star and host of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  We were watching an episode, and there he was making the pancake wrap.  I hate Guy, Adam loves him, but at least we both love the Brownstone.

Food on TV

Does anyone remember the name of the first cooking program on tv they remember watching or the chefs that made you think your mom really did not know how to cook?  I only remember the feel.  The chefs were almost never American.  There may have been some instructional voiceovers while they focused on the cooking.  Most importantly, they were in what looked like a real restaurant kitchen.  They were making dishes I can't remember, would probably never make myself and maybe would never even eat.  It was about their skill and the food.  They were chefs!  I was a kid!  I got hooked.

Wikipedia says The Food Network launched on November 1993, when I was ten, but I must have seen some programming on public television before then.  I still hate Emeril Lagasse as much as I did the first time I ever saw him.  Back when The Food Network was about food, and not people who make cupcakes or people who can't cook, Emeril could not be avoided, and he ruined everything.  No, please do not kick it up a notch.  His audience?  They probably stunted any growth I would have had in culinary arts back in the 1990's.  Same with Sandra Lee in the 2000's.

Quality programming I try to catch on the weekends?  America's Test Kitchen. Chuck's Day Off.  I feel the same way about Chuck Hughes that I did about Jamie Oliver in high school.  And that is tingly, ladies and gentlemen.