Well-Broken Fast

Despite an inauspicious start to Sunday—fumbling for the light or the door of my windowless room, puffy-eyed and unsure whether I was feeling a hangover barely avoided or barely arrived—we were able to conjure a miracle before noon.

The average Modern breakfast has been yogurt & granola with an occasional banana. The outlier breakfast has been cheese'd eggs (usually scrambled, sometimes omelettized) with toast. Today would be a first in the new place: pancakes. The problem was plain pancakes are milquetoast, nutritionally; I wanted more. So I rescued the bananas from certain yogurt, and brought them to my batter. Problem was they were only slightly spotted, and my understanding was that the tolerably closer to rotting, the better the banana p's. It would not do. The solution: slice, sauté (with sugar), smash, and add.

New to me, as a chef, the wonders of caramelization! I miscooked the pancakes several times, but these things just could not be destroyed. A slim drizzle of Vermont Pure put them in a category of breakfast I haven't tasted probably since the french toast at the Michelin-two-star-chef'd Michel Rostang at Malliouhana in Anguilla, 5 1/2 years ago. All present company agreed: astounding.

I eat to live, more than the reverse, so trust me when I say: you have to try this.


Note: Not my image, but equal in appetite appeal (the industry term—thanks Studiocom!).