Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers:
I was very excited when I got on the scale this morning! I not only shed the Los Angeles weight (where I was sight-seeing via my stomach) from the weekend before last but I am now LIGHTER than I was when I went to Los Angeles. The reason I am so excited about this is because I ate A LOT in Los Angeles. A LOT. A lot a lot! All my Los Angeles junk food favorites - and even banana cream pie (TWICE). Probably a month of calories in one long weekend! Yikes!
Since I returned to Tampa from Los Angeles, I have been eating light and continuing to be more active. I knew I had to get the added LA weight off because this weekend is the two day "World Record Breaking Two Hundred Food Truck Rally." And I plan on sampling several of those two hundred food trucks! If you're not from Tampa, you may not be aware that our local "Generation Food Truck" broke the world record for coordinating the largest food truck rally last year with 100 food trucks.
It was a great event and very popular - with many of the trucks running out of food many times (and then restocking) during the day. My friend had dinner from the Mayan Grill food truck. It had broken down on the highway driving to Tampa for the event. Mayan Grill was towed to the Florida State Fairgrounds so that they could still participate in the event. Their food was very popular, so I am glad they didn't give up when their truck broke down!
I appreciated that we could support local and regional small businesses while stuffing our stomachs- and I am looking forward to attending again! It was a great event and I know the Two Hundred Food Truck Rally will be even better. The bands at the last event were especially good as well. Food, music and a lot of happy people - what's not to love? My Food Truck partner in crime and I will be there both days. Needless to say this will be a light, healthy eating week before the event!
But enough about healthy eating, because the rest of this post is devoted to the BEST Crab Cake Eggs Benedict I have had ever. (And trust me, I have had a lot of crab cake eggs benedict entrees over the years!)
First, I have to say that whenever I go to Brunch or Breakfast I give the "Denny's" whine. I feel like restaurants like Denny's, IHOP, Village Inn, etc. have spoiled me for all breakfast joints. This is because I like sweet and savory. I want eggs, pancakes, bacon. Menus that have entrees that are either savory or sweet but no entree that contains both make me sad. Luckily my breakfast companions are of similar mindset, so we usually end up ordering three entrees and sharing a waffle, pancakes, French toast, cinnamon roll or some other "sweet" menu item. Hey, I'm an American - I want it ALL. Why should I be limited to sweet or savory?
However, if I have to choose between sweet or savory; I will choose savory because I feel satisfied longer if my meals have protein in it. A sugary entree will burn through me in 2 seconds flat. An hour later I'll be wanting to eat something else. And since my metabolism has the speed of a turtle with no legs, loading myself up with a lot of calories is never a good idea.
Not only do I love both sweet and savory, I also love all breakfast foods in general, so it can be incredible hard to choose just one item! I love a good spinach-mushroom frittata, eggs Florentine, anything with bacon, a rich pastry like pain au chocolat or a croissant … ohhh so much deliciousness!
However, if there is a crab cake eggs benedict on a restaurant breakfast/brunch menu, chances are I will be ordering it. In fact, I really really really wanted to order it at The Living Room on Main in Dunedin, Florida when "Mrs. Business" and I went out to brunch. But we were both eating relatively healthy so I went with 2 poached eggs … with hash browns … because I'm not Mother Teresa after all. I had this instead of their Blue Crab Eggs Benedict (two poached eggs over lump crab meat, applewood smoked bacon, Brie cheese, dill Hollandaise on white cheddar biscuits. Sigh - sounds like heaven.)
But when I was in Los Angeles, it was no holds barred for my stomach. I gave myself free reign to eat whatever I wanted. It was unseasonably warm when I was in LA, so on the hottest day of the long weekend I chose to go to The Getty Center because I could spend part of the day out doors and whenever I became over-heated I could pop in to the many air-conditioned art galleries. I will write a blog post about my entire day at The Getty at a later date, but for now I will focus on their Crab Cake Eggs Benedict. The Getty has three eating options - a restaurant, a cafe and a light terrace food cart. The restaurant has amazing views. But the view I was taking in was this …
This eggs benedict has EVERYTHING -- spinach, mushrooms, bacon, crab cakes and served on a croissant! Instead of Hollandaise sauce, it has choron sauce. Do you know what choron sauce is? Because I sure didn't. Evidently choron sauce is Bearnaise sauce mixed with tomato paste. The Getty's choron sauce had a wonderful smoky, sun dried quality - I am pretty sure they were not using good old generic tomato paste for this sauce.
The spinach and mushrooms were so fresh - I loved that I felt like I was having eggs Florentine as well as my favorite Crab Cake Eggs Benedict. The bacon was from Nueske's - which is my favorite bacon! The crab cakes were mostly crab with minimal filler - also top notch in Lily's book!
My "calorie saving" tip when I eat a rich dish like Crab Cake Eggs Benedict is that I usually never eat the "bread base" - whether it is English muffins, biscuits, a croissant, etc. However for the sake of "culinary journalism," I did take a bite of the croissant to be able to write about it here. (You're welcome readers, I am doing it all for you!)
The croissant was very rich and very buttery. To me it was over the top because the rest of the dish was very rich. But I guess if you're committing to eat an extravagant dish, you might as well go all the way. I would have preferred a less buttery bread product - but hey I don't usually eat it anyway, so who cares?
The eggs were poached perfectly - no watery mess like other restaurants who fail to drain the eggs properly. This Crab Cake Eggs Benedict was absolutely incredible. But since I started with a rich appetizer (more about THAT later), I only had room for one of the two Eggs Benedict pieces. And even with that I felt like I was waddling the rest of the day. This is definitely not the dieter's special!
So if you're in Los Angeles and love good brunch, definitely make a stop at the Getty Center Restaurant a must on your list. I would recommend making a reservation because it is quite popular.
Where is your favorite crab cake or other type of Eggs Benedict? Please share in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
I was very excited when I got on the scale this morning! I not only shed the Los Angeles weight (where I was sight-seeing via my stomach) from the weekend before last but I am now LIGHTER than I was when I went to Los Angeles. The reason I am so excited about this is because I ate A LOT in Los Angeles. A LOT. A lot a lot! All my Los Angeles junk food favorites - and even banana cream pie (TWICE). Probably a month of calories in one long weekend! Yikes!
Since I returned to Tampa from Los Angeles, I have been eating light and continuing to be more active. I knew I had to get the added LA weight off because this weekend is the two day "World Record Breaking Two Hundred Food Truck Rally." And I plan on sampling several of those two hundred food trucks! If you're not from Tampa, you may not be aware that our local "Generation Food Truck" broke the world record for coordinating the largest food truck rally last year with 100 food trucks.
It was a great event and very popular - with many of the trucks running out of food many times (and then restocking) during the day. My friend had dinner from the Mayan Grill food truck. It had broken down on the highway driving to Tampa for the event. Mayan Grill was towed to the Florida State Fairgrounds so that they could still participate in the event. Their food was very popular, so I am glad they didn't give up when their truck broke down!
I appreciated that we could support local and regional small businesses while stuffing our stomachs- and I am looking forward to attending again! It was a great event and I know the Two Hundred Food Truck Rally will be even better. The bands at the last event were especially good as well. Food, music and a lot of happy people - what's not to love? My Food Truck partner in crime and I will be there both days. Needless to say this will be a light, healthy eating week before the event!
But enough about healthy eating, because the rest of this post is devoted to the BEST Crab Cake Eggs Benedict I have had ever. (And trust me, I have had a lot of crab cake eggs benedict entrees over the years!)
First, I have to say that whenever I go to Brunch or Breakfast I give the "Denny's" whine. I feel like restaurants like Denny's, IHOP, Village Inn, etc. have spoiled me for all breakfast joints. This is because I like sweet and savory. I want eggs, pancakes, bacon. Menus that have entrees that are either savory or sweet but no entree that contains both make me sad. Luckily my breakfast companions are of similar mindset, so we usually end up ordering three entrees and sharing a waffle, pancakes, French toast, cinnamon roll or some other "sweet" menu item. Hey, I'm an American - I want it ALL. Why should I be limited to sweet or savory?
However, if I have to choose between sweet or savory; I will choose savory because I feel satisfied longer if my meals have protein in it. A sugary entree will burn through me in 2 seconds flat. An hour later I'll be wanting to eat something else. And since my metabolism has the speed of a turtle with no legs, loading myself up with a lot of calories is never a good idea.
Not only do I love both sweet and savory, I also love all breakfast foods in general, so it can be incredible hard to choose just one item! I love a good spinach-mushroom frittata, eggs Florentine, anything with bacon, a rich pastry like pain au chocolat or a croissant … ohhh so much deliciousness!
However, if there is a crab cake eggs benedict on a restaurant breakfast/brunch menu, chances are I will be ordering it. In fact, I really really really wanted to order it at The Living Room on Main in Dunedin, Florida when "Mrs. Business" and I went out to brunch. But we were both eating relatively healthy so I went with 2 poached eggs … with hash browns … because I'm not Mother Teresa after all. I had this instead of their Blue Crab Eggs Benedict (two poached eggs over lump crab meat, applewood smoked bacon, Brie cheese, dill Hollandaise on white cheddar biscuits. Sigh - sounds like heaven.)
But when I was in Los Angeles, it was no holds barred for my stomach. I gave myself free reign to eat whatever I wanted. It was unseasonably warm when I was in LA, so on the hottest day of the long weekend I chose to go to The Getty Center because I could spend part of the day out doors and whenever I became over-heated I could pop in to the many air-conditioned art galleries. I will write a blog post about my entire day at The Getty at a later date, but for now I will focus on their Crab Cake Eggs Benedict. The Getty has three eating options - a restaurant, a cafe and a light terrace food cart. The restaurant has amazing views. But the view I was taking in was this …
 |
| The Crab Cake Eggs Benedict from the restaurant at The Getty Center |
The spinach and mushrooms were so fresh - I loved that I felt like I was having eggs Florentine as well as my favorite Crab Cake Eggs Benedict. The bacon was from Nueske's - which is my favorite bacon! The crab cakes were mostly crab with minimal filler - also top notch in Lily's book!
My "calorie saving" tip when I eat a rich dish like Crab Cake Eggs Benedict is that I usually never eat the "bread base" - whether it is English muffins, biscuits, a croissant, etc. However for the sake of "culinary journalism," I did take a bite of the croissant to be able to write about it here. (You're welcome readers, I am doing it all for you!)
The croissant was very rich and very buttery. To me it was over the top because the rest of the dish was very rich. But I guess if you're committing to eat an extravagant dish, you might as well go all the way. I would have preferred a less buttery bread product - but hey I don't usually eat it anyway, so who cares?
The eggs were poached perfectly - no watery mess like other restaurants who fail to drain the eggs properly. This Crab Cake Eggs Benedict was absolutely incredible. But since I started with a rich appetizer (more about THAT later), I only had room for one of the two Eggs Benedict pieces. And even with that I felt like I was waddling the rest of the day. This is definitely not the dieter's special!
So if you're in Los Angeles and love good brunch, definitely make a stop at the Getty Center Restaurant a must on your list. I would recommend making a reservation because it is quite popular.
Where is your favorite crab cake or other type of Eggs Benedict? Please share in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
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