Let's mix it up a little more at breakfast

I don’t understand how people can skip breakfast. If I don’t have a bowl of muesli and fruit, or at the very least a couple of slices of wholegrain toast, I am a tired, ratty mess all morning. I don’t need a team of nutritionists to tell me that food is fuel and eating breakfast is vital for turbo-charging our engines so we can power through the day. Without brekkie, I’ll barely be able to splutter out of the parking lot.

Energy levels aside, I’m also a dedicated fan of a long, leisurely weekend breakfast in a cafe with friends or family, or if I’m on my own, the papers. If there’s a better (G-rated) way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday or Sunday morning, I don’t know what it is.

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to go out for brunch both days – an impromptu brekkie at Le Pain Quotidien in Leichhardt on Saturday and a highly-anticipated session at Kazbah on Darling Street in Balmain on Sunday.

Le Pain Quotidien is a cookie cutter example of the Belgian organic bakery/cafe chain, from the rustic decor and long communal table to the array of buttery pastries, croissants and sinfully-indulgent tarts, cunningly displayed next to the cash register where you can’t help but be tempted to buy some for later, no matter how full you are from brekkie. The menu at Le Pain Quotidien features choices such as pain au chocolat, organic granola "Parfait" with yoghurt and fruit and Belgian sugar waffles with seasonal fruit. Coffee is served French-style (or should that be Belgian-style?) in generous bowls best cupped with both hands.

Having skipped dinner the night before, thanks to my sister’s hen’s drinks, I went straight for the big guns, ordering the organic poached eggs with hollandaise sauce, mesclun salad, sourdough and smoked salmon. My companion S ordered an omelette with smoked salmon & chives. True to the café’s form both were delicious and we spent a very pleasant couple of hours eating and chatting.

On Sunday, S (clearly also a fan of brunch) and I headed to Kazbah. This cheerfully noisy restaurant regularly makes it on to lists of Sydney’s best breakfasts and is one of my personal favourites. Heaving from 9am until mid-afternoon, it’s also one of those rare breakfast establishments where you need to book.

Not surprisingly given the name, the menu has a Middle Eastern/North African feel, featuring dishes such as warm rice pudding served with saffron poached pears and hazelnuts, sweet couscous with mixed dried fruit and nuts, stewed rhubarb and cardamom milk, and their famous breakfast tagine. Sharing the meaty version of the latter (lamb, spinach, roast capsicum, tomato, caramelised onion, feta and eggs baked in an authentic terracotta tagine) and a caramelised onion, sausage and feta omelette, S made the observation that the reason Kazbah is so popular is that it's offering something different to the usual bog-standard, breakfast fare.

It’s a good point – most breakfast menus don’t veer too far from the staples of bacon & eggs (poached, scrambled or fried), eggs benedict and florentine, vegemite toast for the kiddies, and fruit salad and yoghurt for any healthy types that might power-walk in.

Kazbah, and to a lesser extent Le Pain Quotidien (although I confess my meal on Saturday was just eggs benedict in a party frock), takes chances with its breakfast menu, challenging patrons to try something different. The proof that the strategy works is in the reservations book.

Other places renowned for the breakfasts such as Bills in Darlinghurst (forget the fabled scrambled eggs, try the ricotta hotcakes with banana and honeycomb butter) and Deus Cafe in Camperdown do the same. It’s true that sometimes I can’t go past a Big Breakfast (when I’ve consumed one too many glasses of wine the night before, for example) but I’d like to see more cafes offering up a few surprises on their breakfast menus.

In the meantime, suggestions for great brekkie spots/dishes to try will be most welcome.