Let's Do Brunch!

There's nothing I love more than brunch. Brunch is hardly ever rushed, and it's far more enjoyable than the average M-F breakfast. For me, eggs are a required food group in a brunch meal. For others, pancakes, waffles, or a pastry will suffice. All of these are good choices for a leisurely late breakfast, but I need some protein to start my weekend off right.

Eggs don't take long to cook, but they need a little more TLC than adding a splash of milk and a spoon.

There are a few spots I frequent in Chicago for a good brunch that have my fore mentioned eggs cooked the way I like. See my list. An omelet or a poached/over-easy egg will do. Palpable coffee is also taken into consideration, but that's not too hard to find either.

A spot that combines all the essentials into one is Austrian Bakery in Lincoln Park. Don't let the name fool you. This local bakery specializes in homemade cakes for occasion, pastries, breads, breakfast, and lunch. Austrian also serves home squeezed orange juice (juicer in the front, so you know it's legit).

What's great about Austrian Bakery is that everything is:
1. Homemade. In addition to the sweet treats and large cakes, they make a large assortment of breads that are ready to take home and not to mention a little cheaper than you'd expect.
2. Authentic. There's more than just pancakes and omelets. Think about your European breakfasts and how they most always include some sort of meat or cheese (I'm not just talking bacon or cheddar cheese, either). You'll find a summer brie platter and a Weisswurst dish here too.
3. Friendly. Coming here upwards of 50 (yes I said 50) times, we are welcomed with coffee and cream and most of the time our server remembers our order--which almost never changes.

I will never say I'm not a bread person. If I said that, I'd be lying, because there's no way to turn the bread down at Austrian. I'll kneed it down for you:

Selection of breads at Austrian Bakery

Poppyseed, Cranberry Walnut, Buttercrust, Farmer's Rye, Back to the Earth, Multigrain, Sunflower Seed, Russia's Best, Bergsteigerbrot, Honey Wheat, and Pretzel (saved for lunch sandwiches and The Bavarian breakfast).

I go for the 'Back to the Earth' bread every single time. It's a rich and dark condensed rye bread that goes great with a little butter and jam.  It's a bit sour like a sourdough bread but it's more moist and perfect for poached eggs. My boyfriend loves the hearty Sunflower Seed bread. It's crunchy and satisfying, although I'm not sure if I'd choose it for a sandwich bread.

Back to the Earth

Sunflower Seed

In addition to their cake and brunch items, they also serve some traditional Austrian lunch items like goulash and liver dumpling soup.

All in all, this is a place fit for Chicagoans and tourists alike. I hope that someday down the road I can order a cake from here and get a discount on account of my frequent patronage ;)

How to Live: Food

Look closely, as the Lazy Susan tries to find her direction.

It has come to my attention and much to my dismay that I have ill-treated this blog. My first hope, almost a year ago, was to highlight Chicago in all its greatness, and showcase all activities that I had either tried, wanted to try, or could not go another day without telling someone about it. However, I don't go on adventures every weekend or do things that always warrant daily posts, which brings me to my point (and rest of my post)...

I should (and will) blog about what I love most: food. I remember in high school I had an interest in becoming a chef. I shadowed a few chefs in the back kitchen at a nice restaurant for a day in Indianapolis and even took a cooking class(1) with my mom. What I learned was that yes, I love food, but just because you love something, it might not mean you're meat to live, breathe, AND work with it. Hmm, it works with THESE two. Fine. I digress.

After the brief stint with "restaurateur-ring", I asked my mom how one could become a food critic. I was given an explanation along the lines of: you have to be a chef first, then comes the critiquing. Damn.

But with one hiccup came a step forward in a slightly different direction. Writing about my experiences with services, food in particularly, became a habit. A good 10 years later, I'm word-of-mouthing my mouth off to anyone who has ears and everyone who can read.

Food is something I may not know how to best perfect, but I sure as hell can examine it, pronounce it, hate it, and drool over it. Best of yet, I'll share with you how it makes me do all or none of the above.