“Do real men do brunch? No! Unless, of course, they’re really hungry. That’s the thing about America’s favorite hybrid meal—it’s the perfect occasion for men, women and children to put aside their petty differences and chow down. A family affair, sometimes: “There are two reasons to have brunch,” says Michael Ruhlman, who’s been a judge on the Food Network’s The Next Iron Chef and author of The Elements of Cooking (Scribner). “To show a hangover who’s the boss, or because your grandmother’s in town.”
Brunch is often misunderstood, as many delightful things often are. It needn’t be a buffet, and it isn’t necessarily fancy. But in a strange reverse intellectualization of food culture, even an esteemed chef or New York magazine could make the mistake of maintaining that brunch menus are the same everywhere.
A toothsome incentive to get out and face the world on a Sunday, a higher calling than a workaday lunch, brunch is that weekly culinary grail of the weekday warrior, who unwittingly or not counts down the days from Monday to when she (or he) can trade in a bowl of Cheerios and instant decaf for a purple broccoli frittata with Vermont white cheddar and basil pesto, along with a Bloody Mary or two. British writer Guy Beringer coined the term in 1895; writing in Hunter’s Weekly, he called the meal “cheerful, sociable and inciting…it puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”
Cheerio to that. But according to Vern Lanegrasse, the New Orleans native known to L.A. radio audiences for years as “The Hollywood Chef,” it was England’s favorite enemy, the French, who brought brunch to New Orleans well before the nineteenth century—even if they didn’t label it as such. “The French had the idea for a larger meal during the day on Sunday instead of fussing over another big dinner,” he says. Something to consider over Eggs Sardou at Brennan’s, the seasoned chef’s Big Easy brunch favorite and a restaurant that channels well the spirit of New Orleans’ high-calorie heritage.
Traditionally brunch is, yes, on Sunday, but there’s no hard and fast rule. Says Ruhlman, “Brunch is a good excuse to eat and drink in the middle of a week day… It’s a meal with great potential. Some of the things served at brunch are among my favorite things to eat, like Eggs Benedict, or a perfectly made quiche with bacon and onions, and of course, Bloody Marys. With Eggs Benedict, you’ve got a fatty, salty piece of meat with eggs in an egg-based, fat-laden hollandaise sauce—it’s the start of a good day as far as I’m concerned.”
A restaurant may have a special brunch menu, which tends to be the case on the upscale end of the dining spectrum; or it may serve breakfast late into the day, turning that meal into brunch by default.. Then there’s the five-star diner, which aptly describes New York’s Norma’s, where, according to Steven Pipes, GM of the Parker Meridien Hotel of which the restaurant is a part, “from about 11AM on every day, it’s pretty much about brunch.” Norma’s famously fanciful breakfasts—consider a Caramelized Chocolate Banana Waffle Napoleon—are served daily until 3PM. On weekends, Norma’s fills up fast with a hip crowd of Manhattanites who never fail to be enticed by chef Emile Castillo’s creations, starting with his ever-changing array of frozen fruit “smoothie shots”. ” (via www.forbestraveler.com) By Anthony Grant and Janet Newcomb
Pointswizard.com Spin: Read more about Where to go for America’s best brunches
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