Best Breakfast Dishes of 2017

Breakfast may or may not be the most important meal of the day, but it might be the most delicious.

I have a myriad of resolutions for 2018, some of which will greatly reduce the amount I dine out in the next few months (get healthy, workout, lose weight — blah, blah, blah). Another goal is to write more, so for my first set of blogs in 2018, I’m going to recap my favorite dishes of 2017, starting with…breakfast!

Eggs

The best egg dish I ate last year was this skillet of baked eggs with tomatoes, kale, and ricotta from Boulton & Watt in Alphabet City/Lower East Side, NYC. It was healthy, filling, and hearty enough to stand up to one of the city’s most popular pastimes: boozy brunch.

Cast Iron Baked Eggs with Tomatoes, Kale, and Ricotta — Boulton & Watt, New York, NY

Biscuits

I LOVE biscuits, and I consider it my mission in life to find the best biscuits in New York City. I have two biscuits on my Best of 2017 list, and neither is from a Big Apple eatery (I haven’t given up hope of finding an amazing biscuit in my adopted city).

While vacationing with my mom in Asheville, North Carolina last summer, the very first stop we made was Biscuit Head, a beloved local joint known for…well, biscuits. I couldn’t help but order this mimosa fried chicken biscuit with sriracha slaw, sweet potato butter, and a poached egg. Rich, crunchy, sweet, salty, and a little spicy. This biscuit sandwich hit all the parts of my palate.

Mimosa Fried Biscuit Sandwich — Biscuit Head, Asheville, NC

Last July, my cousin got married in San Diego. Being a huge Top Chef fan, I knew what restaurant I had to put at the top of my list. I made a reservation for one, early on a Saturday night, to try Juniper & Ivy, the flagship of Top Chef All-Stars winner, Richard Blais. All of the food was really tasty (this won’t be the first time you read about Juniper & Ivy in this series of posts). One of the standouts was this buttermilk biscuit with smoked salt and butter. Now, I’m typically a purist when it comes to my biscuits, but the smokiness was a great counterpoint to the butteriness of the biscuit. Chef Blais made his mark in Atlanta, Georgia, so I’d expect him to know how to make a good biscuit.

Buttermilk Biscuit with Smoked Salt and Butter — Juniper & Ivy, San Diego, CA

On the Road

I began 2017 working for WaterAid, an organization that provides water, sanitation, and hygiene education to developing countries. While I was a part of the WaterAid team, I was fortunate enough to get to visit some of their work in Colombia. The most delicious thing I put in my mouth during that 10-day trip didn’t come from a fancy restaurant or even a food truck. I still have dreams about this cheese arepa from a roadside stand, somewhere in between Riohacha (the department capital) and the rural Wayuu villages of La Guajira. Locals would roll by, sometimes not even getting out of their cars, and grab some arepas and a cup of ridiculously strong coffee for breakfast on their way to work or school.

Cheese Arepa — random roadside stand, La Guajira, Colombia

Stay tuned for the rest of my best dishes of 2017.