Dear Kristina,
Because you are in a time zone three hours behind my own, when you wake up this post will be up and hopefully it will inspire you to emerge from sleep differently. I arrived at work today after enjoying a strong cup of black coffee and a small piece of ‘breakfast bread’ that I made last night. I love starting the day with this exact combination, for it gives me the feeling of having some time. Unlike a full breakfast, which is intended for the working person, needing to rush off with a half-day full of calories, a piece of bread is just enough to alert the body; to prepare not for the day, but ripe enough for an hour or two of peace, before the first meal. It is a true breaking of the fast and should not be rushed. Let the coffee (or tea if its your preference) be strong and stimulating and, unlike bread, prepared to excess. A decent morning requires at least one second cup, to ponder the day and then the night before. I always make an effort to wake up in time for this breakfast, which the Spaniards call “first breakfast,” precisely because their second, small but still fuller, meal is taken but an hour after the start of the working day.
First Breakfast.
The body benefits from this early taste just as much as the mind. I don’t need to spell out the fruits it produces, but one certainly feels refreshed afterward. I find, too, that the first breakfast gets me in the habit of eating slowly, moderately, and with consideration throughout the day. My favorite varieties of bread include:
1. A thick slice of country white bread spread thin with honey
2. Soft semolina bread and butter
3. Croissant or Pan Au Lait is nice, but only on weekends when you can sit and ready your stomach not for second breakfast, but for a great, long lunch.
4. Leftover baguette is great for mornings. It’s delicious toasted and covered in fruit preserves.
Coffee.
This is a serious matter. Having worked in one of New York City’s snobbiest cafes, I’ve learned a lot about fine coffee and what kinds of people drink what. I drink my coffee black and (if burned by a rookie barrista) sweetened with honey. I like it this way for two reasons: First, because milk has an especially undesirable affect on my body. Second, I find that milk masks the pleasing coffee aroma. There was a time when I would start my day with a cappuccino (only if my barrista was educated), until my stomach gave up. And I am loath to consider the alternative soy or almond milk… I don’t like to start the day with a bean* or a nut, its just unkind.
Coffee Habits
Sometimes I envy people like Julia, a friend of mine from Berlin, who insists on taking her coffee with hot milk and sugar. She stayed with me a couple weeks one summer and I found her in the kitchen every morning putting a pot of milk on the stove and whisking it to keep from curdling. I don’t think she ever got proper aeration this way – milk thick and creamy as from steaming – but the hot milk made her morning richer. I must admit it was nice to watch and to smell.
I have another friend, named Maud, whose sophisticated metropolitan upbringing extended to her coffee habits. Her mother had, not only a collection of Bialetti in various sizes, but a giant stovetop milk foamer, which I can report produced fantastic results. She always poured the milk into bowls first, then let the coffee melt into the center. It was like drinking bowls of velvet. These were some of the sweetest (naturally, from proper heating of the milk) and most delicious cups of coffee I ever enjoyed. We’d sometimes take them with the dogs for a walk around the park. We’d find a bench and sit, pondering the day and the night before, and feeling older than we really were. These were good morning practices because I was learning about the time required to wake the mind and body.
I know many American men who, in an effort to appear sophisticated, take a shot of espresso in the morning. Perhaps it has something to do with the nature of men (which I don’t care to consider) but I detest this habit. Any practice that sends the body into shock is an unfortunate one, especially before noon. I also believe that at breakfast one should put equal, if not more, effort into drinking and eating.
Mistakes I’ve made.
The first time I visited Italy was with the first boy I loved, and we arrived exhausted, but stayed out very late our first night. In fact, the night we arrived Italy beat Germany in a football match and won the title of World Cup Champion, which we got to watch from a crowded piazza in the center of Florence. Of course this celebration meant that all bus and taxi drivers went around hollering like everybody else and made getting home (which was, on our first night, in a remote district of the city) impossible. I forget now how we got there, and if we walked, but I can remember how late it was and how tired we felt. And so when we awoke, after noon the next day, we rushed right back to the center, ready to eat. Our waiter was horribly unkind. Even then I knew the difference between Americano and Cafe Solo, but he ignored my sleepy order and brought my espresso out the same time as our plates. Ben, who had no sense of a relationship to food or a style or preference when dining, sensed my embarrassment and felt it himself. And he offered the only words that could make it better, and I am still grateful to him for this. “I’ll have one too” he told the waiter, with an authority and confidence so unlike him at the time.
recipe
So Kristina, it is now about time for you to leave for work, and for me to prepare for my next meal. I’ll leave you with a recipe before I go…
BREAKFAST BREAD
adapted from Baking at Home
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/5 tsp. baking powder
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp.
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 Tbsp grated orange zest
1/4 cup carrot peels
2 tsp vanilla extract (Haitian vanilla if you can find it!)
3 very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
2 large eggs, room temp.
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup almond slices
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour two 81/2-inch loaf pans.
Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until light in texture. Add honey, orange zest, carrots, vanilla, and bananas and mix well. Add eggs to mixture one at a time, beating well.
Add dry ingredients and stir all at once. Fold nuts into batter then pour evenly into two loaf pans.
Bake until bread begins to pull away from the edges and the center of the loaves spring back when lightly pressed. About an hour.
Remove the loaves from the oven and let rest for 10 – 15 minutes before turning them out of the pan.
Love Pascale
*a soybean is actually a legume
