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FOOD|WRITING|CREATIVE WRITING
Meals on (Two) Wheels
The Breakfast Project, Finsbury Park: forget idioms, this is finger-licking food
Appearances are deceptive. Never judge a book by its cover. Looks can be deceiving.
You get the gist. Sometimes we have to scratch the surface to see what lies inside.
The Breakfast Project has the kind of name that suggests a local council-supported, youth- or unemployment-focused programme tasked with improving the lives of those less fortunate. In reality, this cafe or as modern parlance would have it, “brunch spot” is a family-run gem located opposite one of the more popular spots in north London, Finsbury Park.
I stopped my Brompton’s wheels outside the caff after having cycled past it several times in the past. I was ravenous on this occasion. I had time on my hands. I also had my Sunday paper to read. That’s a serious combination. The message is clear: don’t just feed me, but feed me well. Enough that my attention will shift from Eva Wiseman’s ever-excellent columns to what’s on my plate.
In that respect, The Breakfast Project didn’t disappoint. Unusually for me, I went for the full English. I’m so accustomed to ordering the veggie or vegan option these days, that sometimes I forget how good black pudding, or Cumberland sausages taste.
Other than the eccentricity of being served breakfast on a frying pan, I almost stood up to congratulate the chef. The bubble and squeak (a peasant-inspired British classic) was delicious, not a comment I often make. I’ve been to cafes where they treat this dish as an afterthought. The sausages were slightly charred, just the way I like them. The egg was runny, which combined with the baked beans gave the two slices of toast a mopping job to do.
The star of the show, however, was the bacon. Perhaps, you reader, or fellow writer, belong to the “chewy bacon” group. Fine. That’s your democratic right. Don’t worry, we’ll carry on being friends. After all, I’ve got many friends with similar “quirks”. As for me, I like my bacon crispy, almost seared around the edges, where the fatty bit is. I love the way my teeth crunch into this salt-cured part of the pork. The bacon I had at The Breakfast…
