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2012-10-20
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My good friend doctor N is a brunch addict. Given her rather crazily long working hours like mine, I do not find this surprising (you see.. being about to sleep in and combine breakfast and lunch leisurely is a total luxury) and so she has long been the perfect brunch buddy. It was a fine day. N made a reservation at California Vintage for our brunch date before watching "Potted Potter" (the play) at APA together. ==I arrived early and sweaty. To my surprise, the restaurant was completely empty.
It was a fine day. N made a reservation at California Vintage for our brunch date before watching "Potted Potter" (the play) at APA together.
==
I arrived early and sweaty. To my surprise, the restaurant was completely empty. (people gradually came during our brunch though..)
The restaurant is quite small with wooden high tables and stools. Surrounding the main seating area are wine dispenser machines serving Californian wine. I could not help getting super excited and thought to myself 'I should come at the right hour for its true purpose...". Anyway, a slight hiccup, I enquired about the booking made by N and the waiter could not find the record.. but given that there was no one else in the restaurant, he apologised and I was swiftly seated..
I then noticed there was an Ipad preloaded with the restaurant's own system on most of the tables. I had a quick play with it. A user friendly system nicely presenting the variety of Californian wine on offer! nice touch!
N joined me shortly and a simple brunch menu was brought to us. As you could see, the restaurant tries quite hard to "stick to" its restaurant name naming the food after Californian places.. "SAN FRANCISCO omelet"... "SAN DIEGO scramble"... "NAPA COUNTY breakfast"... I personally found that quite cute. We both went for the Napa County Breakfast and a glass of orange juice. Now at this point, it is worth pausing a moment and consider what is meant by "Californian Cuisine". Surely it does not merely mean giving the food regional names? When I visited San Francisco, my friends there raved about Californian Cuisine's focus in "fusion", using fresh ingredients with a strong attention to presentation.
A simple breakfast dish. Let's cover the components one by one:-*Two eggs, scrambled or fried* -
I went for scrambled eggs. I was delighted to see sprinkles of spring onion and black pepper on the yellow silky well-folded pile of scrambled egg adding both colour and flavour. The chef was obviously generous with the cream when preparing this dish and presented to us a perfect balance of "milkiness" and "egginess" (if there were such words ). Carefully executed and comfortably far from being over-cooked; it was soft, creamy and very hearty. I loved this.
*Sausage* -
My first impression was "it looks super oily all over the skin..", and unfortunately I was right. As I sliced the sausage open, oil oozed out (....) and I could even see cubes of fat inside the sausage (!!!). Don't get me wrong - I am well aware that "fat" is an important and irreplaceable element for juicy sausages. But this sausage, I cannot blame it all on the chef/restaurant, is not very appealing.. perhaps the restaurant should change its sourcing.. Anyhow, it was well-grilled, not burnt and served piping hot.
*Bacon* -
I do not feel that much effort was paid into this dish. It was a warm day and I assure you that I attended the bacon soon after I was served (after trying a bite of each the egg and the oily sausage..), but the bacon was not even warm by then.. a bit disappointed. Nothing much more to say, just pieces of normal bacon which was not served hot enough.
*Pinquito beans* -
Awesome choice to replace the (more British) baked beans with the (more Californian/Mexican) pinquito beans; now it justifies the Californian element of the breakfast dish a bit more. Nicely spiced with a sweet BBQ-sauce undertaste, the pinquito beans was extremely rich in flavour giving me a good and well-appreciated hot kick in that lazy warm Sunday morning.
*Sourdough toast* -
Sourdough bread is celebrated throughout the Californian region (so again, well done to the restaurant for bringing a more genuine Californian element into the breakfast dish). Sourdough bread normally has a distinct mildly sour taste. The sourdough toast served here was topped over with the creamy scrambled eggs though. It was therefore unfortunate that the "toast" became slightly soggy and no longer "toasty", and the supposedly distinct flavour of sourdough was also significantly underplayed. Perhaps it will be better to serve the bread by the side?
All in all, a fair brunch experience but there are many other better (or similar standard) places around.
As I finished up my brunch, I could not help thinking once again.. "I should have come at the right hour for its true purpose".
And so, I know I would be back, probably not for brunch, but for drinks .
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