Fish Egg Brunch

Donna and I went to brunch this morning at the Logan Inn in New Hope.  The Logan Inn used to have brunch buffet but with the ownership change they have switched to a Brunch Menu. The menu offers half a dozen egg choices, a couple of fish choices and three sweet choices.  Donna went for the Eggs Benedict and I went for the Smoked Salmon and Trout dish making this a Fish-Egg Brunch LOL.

 Since it was brunch, we had to have  brunch beverages.  Donna went for the Classic Mimosa and I went for the Classic Bloody Mary.  The Korbel Brut sparkling wine matched well with the sweetness of the orange juice. I thought the bottle presentation was a  nice way to be able to adjust the drink as the meal continued.

My Bloody Mary looked like a mini salad bar. Three olives, lemon slice, lime slice and big stalk of celery decorated the spice infused Vodka and Tomato Juice beverage.  I asked for light spice and they hit it right on for me. A very flavourful tomato juice. Some places want to impress you with the vodka but this one was well balanced putting the vodka in the background to blend in with the juice and spices. Very drinkable and great match to my savory fish dish.

My fish dish is a take on the classic bagel and lox. The Smoked Salmon and Smoked Trout comes with two large pieces of Smoked Salmon covering a freshly Toasted Bagel that has been coated in Cream Cheese.  The salmon is sprinkled with briny Capers.  The Smoked Trout is straight up in bite size pieces.  A slice of Jersey fresh Tomato, Red Onion and crisp Lettuce accompany the smoke fish.  The lightly smoked trout enhanced the delicate nature of the fish and brought back memories of when I use to catch little 6 inch brook trout in the streams around my home in rural Canada. My Mom loved trout and she would always pan-fry them as soon as I go them home.  The smoked salmon was darn good. The over-sized pieces of salmon almost melted in my mouth a bit on the overhand off the bagel. The slightly smoky taste matched well with sweetness of the cream cheese and tomato. The briny capers and tangy onions also contrasted nicely with the bagel sandwich I created. 

Donna’s Eggs Benedict were well presented with some Fruit and Home Fries on the side. The lightly poached eggs were covered in fresh creamy Hollandaise Sauce and placed on a freshly toasted English Muffin and  Ham.  Hold it ham? The menu says Canadian Bacon, but it was not Canadian Bacon, we’re Canadian and that was NOT Canadian Bacon. LOL. Most likely it was the Logan Inn’s Twice Smoked Virginia Pit Ham that is offered as a side on the menu. It was actually nice, very tender, moist and slightly smokey but it wasn’t Canadian bacon. LOL. We did miss the salty taste you get from Canadian bacon but it was an interesting change. The Fruit was fresh and sweet and a good match to the savory eggs and home fries.  The Home Fries were lightly fried giving them a good potato taste and a good mouth feel.  They were delicious when you dipped them into the egg yoke and Hollandaise sauce.  All in all a very good dish and worth the trip to New Hope. BTW if you like Hollandaise Sauce, we are planning a Throwdown with Hollandaise Sauce with some local Bucks County Chefs.  Read more about at this post and let me know if you are interested attending the live Throwdown.

IF YOU ARE MY DOCTOR, STOP READING NOW AND FOLLOW THESE LINKS TO WHERE I ATE SALAD HERE, HERE & HERE.  If you insist on reading on, please note that I had only one bite and shared this will all 16 people that were in the dinning room with us.  LOL.

The Logan Inn makes several home-made desserts that are worthy of consideration but I chose the Bread Pudding with Baily’s Irish Cream Sauce.  The 6 inch diameter bread pudding was nice and light with a light bit of caramelizing on the top. The pudding comes with three sauces, a strawberry coulis, a heavy caramel sauce and the Irish Cream sauce. Each of the bring different notes of sweetness to the party and a nice contract in texture to the bread pudding. The dollop of cold whipped cream contrasted to the warm bread pudding and added another sweetness. I am pretty sure this should be illegal for people with diabetes but the waiter, Andrew, said they have a special permit so I let them off. And since I was sharing this with everyone (wink-wink nod-nod) I was good and didn’t want anyone to get into trouble. LOL. A great dessert but bring friends to share it with.

Donna and I enjoyed our brunch and recommend you try it to.  If you need someone to help with dessert, let me know.

Read other reviews of the Logan Inn here, here and here.

Logan Inn,10 West Ferry Steet, New Hope PA 215-862-2300

Sunday Brunch in Dublin PA

I am about to add the Dublin Star to my Best of Bucks Top 5 Bunches.  Donna and I took the surprisingly short drive up to Dublin for Sunday Brunch on recommendations by poker buddy Fritz and business colleague Chris.  I think it makes it into the Top 5 because it is the most family friendly brunch I have eaten.  It was all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for $9.95 ($6.95 for kids).  The buffet included lots of kid friendly buffet items including cereal, pastries, pancakes, french toast, waffles, bacon, scrapple, sausages, grits, fruit salad and made-to-order omelets.  For an additional $2.95 you can add on the regular salad bar which included three different soups, multiple salad options for you to build your own salad with any of the five different dressings.  Donna and I didn’t go for the add-on because the breakfast items were satisfying enough.  Tea and coffee is included but the diner does not sell alcohol.  So kid friendly food and  portions large enough for the adults.

The spacious diner had lots of booths and tables with room for different family sizes.  Despite the noontime crowd the diner was relatively quiet even with multiple families having little kids dining with them.   So a family friendly environment.

Although all the breakfast buffet items were all tasty and plentiful, the highlight for both Donna and I were the made-to-order omelets and fruit salad.  Timmy is the regular omelet cook and he offers onions, mushrooms, sausage, peppers, ham, broccoli, bacon, tomatoes and four different cheeses. The combination of these multiple items make almost endless possibilities for your own omelet.  My finished sauagage ham and Swiss cheese omelet was light and fluffy with a nice contrast of savory ham and sausage with sweet Swiss cheese.  I coupled mine with the fresh fruit salad  that included pineapple, strawberries, two types of melon and grapes.  The grapes were so fresh they almost popped when you bit into them. Although I am calling it a fruit salad there was no dressing just the natural fruit flavours coming through.

All in all Dublin Star offers a family friendly brunch.  Please click on the comment link below to suggest other brunch location or share your experiences.

Dublin Star Diner and Restaurant, 133 N. Main Street, Dublin, PA 18917 215-249-3686

Karla Can Cook (actually it’s Pancho)

Today I went to lunch with my former co-worker and Facebook friend Anne.  Anne keeps the pulse on health care advertising and how brands are leveraging social media to keep in touch with their customers. We selected Karla’s in New Hope as our dining destination.  I have been to Karla’s before and they offer a very nice set of lunch (and dinner) choices and my friend Ed, tends bar there. 

For appetizers, Anne choose the House Salad with Thai dressing and I chose the French Onion soup, Au Gratin.  Anne’s salad was pretty straight forward combination of greens, radicchio, tomatoes, cucumbers and red onions with a ginger based Thai dressing.  Some fresh ground pepper completed the dish.  The fresh crispy salad was a good start to the meal, not to heavy and a dressing to keep you interested. 

The French Onion soup was very good.  This classic was a standout because of the quality of the broth.  Many French Onion soups end up being very salty because they use bouillon rather than beef stock.  Karla’s version was perfect.  The mozzarella covering the croutons was nice and stringy making it somewhat difficult to eat but that’s part of the fun.  The generous portion was more than I wanted given I was looking forward to my luncheon salad.

One of the treats at Karla’s is their homemade fries.  Anne and I decided to share an order and they lived up to their reputation.  Golden brown pieces of potato goodness irregular in length and colour confirming these were made on premise rather than shipped in from some factory.  Seasoned with kosher salt each fry was perfect in texture – not too crispy and not too soft and chewy. It would be easy to make a meal of these but I have been trying to cut down on fries. But if you are going to fall off the diet wagon the fries at Karla’s are worth it.

Anne’s main course was the chicken wrap sandwich. (shameless plug for taking the Sandwich Poll if you haven’t already inserted here.)  Large chunks of chicken, tomatoes, lettuce and goat cheese filled the spinach wrap.  The goat cheese was a substitution for Anne showing the fflexibilityof the wait and kitchen staff.  A good test of a restaurant is how they deal with minor changes in the food and Karla’s staff passed with flying colours.  The sandwich came with a dill pickle spear and a creamy carrot and cabbage coleslaw.  A very filling sandwich that completed the meal for Anne.

I am not sure I have eaten so many salads in one week in my life before this but when the waiter described the Seafood Salad I knew I wanted it.  The combination of crab, mango and avocado seemed like a natural and lord forbid this might be healthy for me.  The crispy greens, tomato, red onions played a nice supporting role to the stars of the show the crab, mango and avocado.  Usually I like hunks of crab meat that are almost sushi size but the crab was shredded into almost rice sized pieces.  I was surprised as the shreds worked well.  The pieces of yellow mango provided a sweet aromatic taste that matched well with the salty sweet crab. The crown jewel of the salad was the partially sliced avocado that topped the salad.  The fresh avocado’s creamy texture was a good contrast to the crunchy chunks of mango, onions and greens.  I thought this salad (shameless plug for salad survey inserted here if you haven’t already participated) was very will conceived, the combination of ingredients, the colours and textures make this a tasty and eye pleasing dish you should try.

A couple of other things you should know about Karla.  Ed makes a great cocktail so even though we didn’t engage get him to make the Blue Hawaiian like he did for my 50th Birthday Party. Karla’s offers a Local’s Menu on Mondays where you can get an appetizer, entree, dessert and tea or coffeefor a price range of $14-$19.  The choices are different each Monday so the price varies but always a good deal. Menu prices for lunch range from $6-$16 and $6-$30 for dinner.  The last thing is that Karla’s offers a decent al a carte Sunday Brunch from 11-3 with great versions of Egg Benedict’s, Omelets and Pancakes. (Don’t forget Ed’s Cocktails).

Karla’s Bar & Restaurant, 5 West Mechanic Street, New Hope, PA, 215.862.2612

Easter Feast

Since Easter and Passover often fall very close to each other many families are celebrating with food.  Our weekend feast started Saturday night when I cooked lasagna.  I love making this layered pasta dish and have been doing it for years.  Saturday night’s version was a little different because I used ricotta cheese infused with basil as the middle cheese layer.  It turned out well as I hope the photo shows.  I matched the lasagna with some pretty straight forward garlic bread. 

Sunday morning was bunch time even if it was just for Donna and I.  I made Eggs Benny with rosemary hash browns and Canadian bacon.  Donna loves my hash browns as I kick them up with rosemary, thyme and oregano plus some yellow onions and a little clove of garlic.  I grilled the Canadian bacon lightly and placed them over the hash browns instead of classic English muffins.  The poached eggs topping the bacon were covered by hollandaise sauce.  An extra couple of pieces of Canadian bacan and a tomato slice finished the plate.  We made tea and toasted with mimosas making our Easter Bunch special.

 

For Easter Supper we made a spiral ham with a sugar clove glaze, potato scallop and green beans.  This was our first spiral ham for Easter as we usually have turkey.  I am not a big ham fan but the ease of the spiral ham and Donna’s love of ham made me want to try it this year and boy was I glad.  The ham was moist and delicious with a nice mixture of textures and sweet and salty.  The subtle rich potato scallop made with a basic béchamel sauce and roasted in the oven.  Donna put a nice layer of cheddar cheese on the top towards the end of the cooking time making a nice cheesy crust on top.  The combination of ham, scallop potato and veg is a classic and a great conclusion to our Easter Weekend Feast

Happy Easter and Good Eating to Everyone.