Every traveller I know has the breakfast fantasy. (No, not that one. Get your mind out of the gutter.) It’s the dream of getting away from the standard-issue hotel breakfast with plastic ham, soggy fruit platter, stale cheese and cold croissants to this gorgeous little place, see, run by a dedicated family of gourmets who exist to provide you with the perfect, organically-anointed, hand-cooked start to the day.
A recent visit to London touched off envy: Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore can hold their own with specialty restaurants, and the range of regional cuisines across the country makes most visitors travel with very happy stomachs. But we’re not — yet — a breakfast nation; that’s still a family meal, and if you are eating out, there are few options beyond the admittedly gorgeous South Indian breakfast.
The traditional English: This is almost the traditional Australian or French these days in London, and if you’re like me, this will be your big meal of the day. (Doing a big lunch after this works only if you want to find out firsthand what a day in the life of the average force-fed Strasbourg goose is like.)
The Tapa Room at The Providores in Marylebone offered a laid-back but utterly gorgeous twist on the traditional English: blood pudding, a ‘traditional’ fry-up with perfect scrambled eggs and slow-roasted tomatoes on sourdough bread replacing greasy fried tomatoes. Marmalade and New Zealand manuka honey are available, but so, in a nod to the land down under, is vegemite (no, I refuse to ruin good toast with that muck); the French toast will be stuffed with bananas and pecans, and the Turkish eggs are so not English, and so incredibly good. I had a great traditional breakfast at the J&A Café, in Sutton Lane, where my companion succumbed to the lure of boiled eggs and toast “soldiers”. It’s only after having a few of these that you understand the English a little better — the Holy Grail has been replaced by the quest for the perfect sausage, and enthusiastic discussions about pig farming seemed almost like a normal part of my meals by the end.
The chain restaurant: I’m not usually enthusiastic about chains, but some of the current European ones are pretty good. Paul’s boulangerie offered decent coffee, almond croissants just good enough to make me really miss France, and that was the general feel of the place — faux Paris, but a reasonable imitation thereof. Le Pain Quotidien has been spreading its organic-only outlets through Europe, and it turned out to be the perfect place to have a quiet, cosy breakfast with friends. The orange juice will be hand-squeezed, the bread basket respectable and the home-made fruit butters quite good: great for the busy business-person on the move.
The melting pot breakfast: Congee for breakfast might still be hard to find in London, but uttapam and dosa (at the Café Cinnamon and other Indian restaurants), banh mi baguettes and if you’re willing to let breakfast slide over into lunch, pho, made for some excellent eating.
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My friends were buzzing about the Lantana Café in Charlotte Place; this does clever, Australian food, and the corn fritters are perhaps their signature dish. What I loved, though, were the sugar-cured prawn omelettes, with a mildly spicy sambal on the side. Banh mi baguettes were a glorious indulgence the next day, and these Vietnamese sandwiches — tender beef, traditional herbs and spices — seem to be taking London by storm. The Aussies are the new French, the Indians are the new Bangladeshis, and the Vietnamese are the new Thai. All of which makes for some of the best breakfasts I’ve had in Europe.
Nilanjana S Roy is a Delhi-based freelance writer