Breakfast

Not all breakfast sandwiches are created equal. Most breakfast sandwiches consist of some kind of bread (I prefer a croissant), eggs, cheese, and either bacon or ham. It does not sound like a hard sandwich to mess up. However, after doing a taste test between two different cafeterias, which are separated only by a parking lot, I realized the differences can be dramatic.

Let's start with the cafeteria that's in my office building. The owner's are nice enough, they smile and say hello, but they give you attitude if all you buy is a Snickers and no lunch. "Oh? Just chocolate today?" And it's said in not such a nice way. The food has a reputation for being Costco-on-a-bun. That right there should tell you something. For the breakfast sandwich, they do offer your choice of bread, but no croissant, I opt for the english muffin. The eggs come scrambled and taste like salt and pepper, but otherwise, nothing remarkable. The cheese is a slice of Kraft American Singles, which is fine if you're 5 years old and your mom is packing your lunch. The bacon tastes like it just came out of the microwave and is a little limp and chewy. All-in-all though, it's still tasty in a generic kind of way, and I really don't mind it because it fills me up on those days I just don't have time to eat at home.

Now let's jump across the parking lot. I just tried this other cafeteria for the first time today. And let me tell you, I'll have a hard time going back to that first cafeteria. The owner here is very friendly, with a smile, and a down-home look about her. The menu offered peroshkies and I detected a slight accent from the owner, so who knows, maybe they offer some authentic home cooking here? She also offered a choice of bread, just about anything I wanted except the croissant (woe-is-me). As before, I opted for the english muffin. I also opted for the bacon instead of the ham. I was also prompted for my choice in cheese, which was a pleasant surprise, I went for swiss just to mix things up a bit. I then sat down and grabbed a paper and read a headline about how home prices in the SF Bay Area have dropped. They still haven't dropped far enough for my liking, with the median price now over $500k (as compared to $800k in the city).

With my sandwich ready and boxed to go I headed to a table to dive in. My first surprise was that the eggs were over medium. I thought to myself, This is different. I thought it was a given that all breakfast sandwiches had scrambled eggs and that fried eggs were reserved for pancake sandwiches. I shrugged my shoulders, picked up the sandwich, and took the first bite. Butter. Sweet delicious butter. Oh, how I love thee. Everything is better with a bit o' butter. The cheese was real swiss cheese with nothing processed about it. The english muffin was toasted to perfection. The bacon was piled high and was crisp and bacony. Like bacon should be. I ate half the sandwich and felt full. I ate the other half cause it was so darn good and felt like I overate.

I can't wait to go back and try the peroshkies. I am hoping for more of that butter. Sweet, sweet, butter.