Dining
Dining
Bountiful Brunches by Susan Campbell The all-you-can-eat brunch buffet is a culinary cornucopia that can make any Sunday a special occasion. But now à la carte gourmet breakfasts are colliding with avant-garde lunches to carve out entirely new options for the late to rise and shine. And some are served every day of the week!
60 Nights
The beauty of brunch
Have you ever wondered how breakfast met lunch to evolve into this midday extravaganza we call brunch? On Aruba, American visitors introduced the allinclusive Sunday buffet, but “brunching” is actually a British innovation. Though Sunday brunch really took root in North America in the 1930s, the concept originated in Europe in the 1800s. In fact, the word “brunch” (the blend of the terms breakfast and lunch) was first coined in 1895 by Guy Beringer, a British writer who penned an article in Hunter’s Weekly magazine entitled “Brunch: A Plea.” He
pleaded for the introduction of a new meal that began around noon to replace the early, heavy after-church Sunday repast so as to make life brighter for “Saturday night carousers.” He also predicted that brunch would “sweep away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” His plea seems to have been heard, as evidenced by an article that appeared a year later in the British magazine Punch that stated “to be fashionable nowadays we must ‘brunch.’ ” Throughout the ages, the freedom to partake in feasts of bacchanalian proportions at a leisurely pace was a privilege reserved for the most affluent. But as the average family income increased, the practice eventually extended to the middle classes where the ability to put out lav-
ish, extensive spreads for Sunday guests became a symbol of spiraling status. As cosmopolitan hotels and restaurants in America began serving it, going out for brunch became an opportunity for friends and family to gather and a perfect way to give women a break from their domestic duties, especially on Mother’s Day. Great “eggspectations”
Egg dishes have always been, and still are, one of the most important parts of the most important meal of the day. And brunch would not be what it is without those oval-shaped chameleons that can accommodate almost any savory ingredient so well. Sunny-side up, over easy, scrambled, or folded into interesting omelets are all de rigueur brunch fare. But the classiest stars of the brunch venue are more complicated creations like Eggs Benedict, Quiche Lorraine, and Italian-style frittata. !
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