Brunch Obsession: Part 1 of many to come

Growing up, I never really understood the obsession over breakfast foods. When I went to college, everyone wanted breakfast foods all day long. There were many late nights spent at the local diner and it always surprised me how excited my friends got when there was an "All-day" breakfast menu.

Fast forward years later and now I totally get it. For me, it's not really about going out to breakfast, it's all about brunch. This should be a fun, social meal that is hardy, decadent, and special. I want something more than what I can get at a greasy spoon diner. I want high quality, well-executed dishes that I could eat all day long. For the next few weeks  months, I'll talk about some of my favorite[brunch] things.

The Quintessential Bread Basket Wishlist

I don't often see fresh bread baskets at restaurants, so instead I have fond carb memories and fantasies about Balthazar NYC's famous version. If I were to assemble a bread basket, it would probably end up being a giant basket that could serve 15. Instead of limiting myself, I'll just throw in everything on my wishlist and then "try" to pare it down from there :P

1. Some sort of cinnamon rolls or sticky buns

These were made in class at SF Cooking School. A couple of the pictures are fuzzy because I got some flour on my phone while taking pictures :(

         

         

Love it! Matcha Green Tea

On my way home from a nice walk with Echo I stopped in Starbucks and asked for an unsweetened green tea latte. The n00b behind the counter fumbled around writing something on the cup. A couple minutes later, I picked up my latte. Excellent! When it cooled a bit I took a sip and it was clearly sweetened. UGH!! I figured it was probably because the n00b got the order wrong. Oh wells...try again next time.

Fast forward to next time...the SAME THING happened again!! ARGH!! So I sat there and used their wi-fi to Google it. Turns out other people have had the same experience. Starbucks uses a pre-mixed powder that has plenty of sugar in it. Shouldn't their staff know about that?! Well there goes another $4 down the drain. Annoying!

I still want a freaking green tea latte though. This calls for DIY. I did a little research and matcha powder comes in different grades and the drinking kind quite expensive, anywhere from $8-20 per ounce. Woah! I went over to my local Japanese market and got a little container of high quality matcha. It was on sale for $7.50 for an ounce.

Also I got a chasen, which is a little bamboo brush used to prepare the matcha. The tea tends to clump together so the chasen is very helpful with breaking the tea down as well as creating frothiness. I'm using a matcha bowl I got for $1 at the dollar store.








Making the matcha is actually a fun little process. I've been doing it everyday and I loving it. Even with the pricey match powder, it's much more affordable than getting one at Starbucks or Peet's everyday. Plus it's totally customizeable to my taste. Love it!