Now That’s a Breakfast Sandwich!
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Farm Monte Cristo breakfast sandwich at the Morning Glory Cafe, part of the Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona. Simply wonderful – both the breakfast and the locale. One heck of a sandwich, so much so that my friend Brad was compelled to photograph it before I started. Let’s dig in:
The menu describes it as “French Toast “Sandwich” with Slow Baked Ham, Over Easy Eggs, and Melting Cheese, with Warm Maple Syrup.” Technically correct, but as you can see, that’s like describing the Mona Lisa as “portrait of woman with dark hair and slight smile.”
First of all, the presentation was fabulous. Deep, squared plate containing a reservoir of organic maple syrup at just the right level of viscosity – not too runny, but firm enough to let you know it’s there. The slightly raised edges of the bread acted as an additional levee to contain even smaller pools of syrup on the top, which were then carpet-bombed with powdered sugar. (This was helpful in keeping the powdered sugar “down” on the bread, so as not to gag when accidentally inhaling loose powdered sugar, which can be a problem.)
The French Toast itself was incredible. According to the menu, the bread was called “sweet rustic bread” – it was sturdy and able to absorb the syrup without becoming overly soggy. Plus, there was a decent amount of cinnamon in the bread as well, and when combined with the syrup, resulted in a wonderful maple/cinnamon/vanilla tour-de-force. The “slow baked” ham was thin-sliced and was very tender and not overly “hammy” of lesser restaurants – much like good fish doesn’t have a “fishy” taste/smell to it. But let’s not go there.
The egg was over-easy and was supple and firm, yet delectable. Top-quality yolk there as well. To paraphrase George Costanza (at rival Reggie’s Diner), it won’t kill you to have a yolk. The cheese was a very thin sliced swiss that melted perfectly to further bond all of the wonderful ingredients. Of course this had to be eaten with knife and fork – you wouldn’t want to waste this fine item eating with your hands. It’s meant to be savored and each morsel enjoyed to its fullest.
In fact, the only downside to the entire experience was really a positive, in retrospect. As the cafe is primarily outdoor seating, we were under an arching canopy of southwestern trees – palo verdes, I think. There was a slight breeze, and several of the flowers from the blooming trees would fall into our area. Normally one wouldn’t want the outdoors intruding on your place setting, but thinking about it later – why again were we complaining about flowers falling from the sky? It sounds lovely.
Now remember when I said I was starting Project Forty 200 just a few days ago? This project was not only about weight loss and getting healthy, but also living well. Ideally they would all be on the same side of the ledger, but this sandwich was definitely not about weight loss nor getting healthy (though there were high percentages of my RDA of carbs, fat, and protein). No, this was a big item on the “living well” side of the equation. Absolutely no regrets on this one – plus we “walked it off” the next few hours by enjoying a quick hike.
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