Let your caged bird sing!
We were breakfasting at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza in Berkeley, CA last week and I noticed this all-American breakfast offered on the menu. I had to have it. Having the eggs cage-free essentially eliminates the problem of having to negotiate your knife and fork between the bars of a cage, which can get especially tricky if the eggs are soft-boiled. The last caged-egg breakfast I had — in Mumbai, I think – I had to go at the suckers with a straw. If you have no choice – if caged-eggs are all that’s offered – I recommend ordering them scrambled with chopsticks.
The artisanal toast was an eye-opener. It was so beautifully toasted I didn’t even want to eat it. It felt like a crime against the muse of toast. I wanted to meet this guy, this artist, this man of fire and dough. I assume it was a guy because the toasting was so muscular, so powerful – I don’t know – it had to be a guy.
Now with carbon enriched flour.
We applauded when the waitperson set my breakfast in front of me. Then both she and Jill waited breathlessly while I forked a bit of egg – un-caged, free to imagine! – onto a torn hunk of toasted bread that harkened one back to the ancient toasters, the toasters of Gwnnyll in the Valley of Qwyth.
Very funny! But did it taste any different than a normal bite of egg on toast?
I’m told by no less an authority than Dr. Andrew Weil that free range chickens usually have access to a three by six foot square of so-called “range” for a few hours a day. Nothing like the home on the range spread I’d imagined, and definitely not worth paying extra for.
Please know that yours is the only blog I read faithfully. Love it!
Funny Michael! Was all the food green? When you bought a meal they bought one in your name for a child in need right? All American Breakfast in Berkeley! That used to the the CONUNDRUM CAFE….been there!
Looks like toast for the trash!
Great blog! Thank goodness for your lovely sense of humor.
Another great post!
One of the many things I love about living in Rome is that there is so much less BS on the menu. Dishes live or die on their own merits and don’t require a lot of dressing up in order to sell them. (Of course, it may also be that my Italian language skills are still quite wobbly, and I’m just missing the hype!)
@Sara: Speaking as one who raises his own chickens and feeds them only organics with no hormones, etc… you have no idea just how much more flavor their eggs have. Not to mention the much bolder yolk color.
I understand your point about “free range” chickens, but trust me… with the predators looking for a free chicken dinner and not wanting to comb 50 acres looking for the eggs that they have laid, my chickens do spend a bit more time in the barn than wandering the farm. What they certainly are not is locked in individual cages.
Sorry if this looks like a rant. lol Try farm fresh eggs and support your local farmer. Trust me – you’ll be glad you did.
@ David Antonacci – I couldn’t agree with you more -farm-fresh eggs are infinitely superior to mass-produced eggs. I was just taking a shot at pretentious menus.
The wonderful thing about Berkeley is the way it re-defines food in its own image. A simple breakfast selection can combine a political statement, moral superiority, homage to the artist’s touch and a flamethrower. I lived there back in the riotous sixties and have visited often since then, because where else can you get such outspoken food?
Karen McCann
enjoylivingabroad.com