Modern life presents us with many difficulties. One of them is the conundrum 'When is a cafe just a cafe? And when is it a tearoom/bistro/restaurant/wine bar or whatever?' On a rainy day in Durham, I encountered this very problem and found myself in what turned out to be a kind of hybrid cafe-bistro-restaurant. Despite this identity crisis, the Cafe Continental provided a very canny breakfast. It's a bit posher than the places I usually frequent but such is life in a cathedral city.
I was lured inside by a rain-soaked blackboard, which offered:
After a bit of confusion with the lass behind the counter, I ended up ordering the large vegetarian breakfast which cost a bit more than the blackboard offer and was apparently double the size. When it first arrived, it looked like this:
Very canny but hiding its light under something of a bushel so after a bit of rearrangement and an application of the brown sauce lo and behold:
Now that's what you call a canny breakfast!
Condiments clustered in a corner with milk jugs and collection boxes, as though they were queuing at a wet bus stop:
They have an upstairs room but I decided to stay downstairs, which turned out just fine. It later transpired that most of the action takes place upstairs so I ate my breakfast in a kind of ante room or dentist's waiting room but that was OK by me. Whilst there, I got to pondering the origins of the now ubiquitous hash brown. When I was a lad nobody had ever heard of them - these days, you can hardly get moved for them. As luck would have it, the Idaho Potato Commission website (apparently the official home of the Idaho potato, which just makes me want to see the unofficial version) has the answer:
'Hash browns” (also called “hashed browns,” “hash brown potatoes” and “hashed brown potatoes”) are a popular breakfast dish, served today at fast food restaurants almost everywhere. The term “hashed brown potatoes” was used by food author Maria Parloa (1843-1909) in 1888, “hash brown potatoes” is cited from 1895, “hash browns” is cited from 1911 (part of lunch counter slang), and “hashed browns” is cited from 1920. Hashed brown potatoes were a popular breakfast dish in New York City in the 1890s and were served in the finest hotels.'
If, by any chance, this fails to satisfy your curiosity then Dr Potato may have the answer...
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