Every morning, I wake up looking forward to my favourite meal of the day, also considered as the most important meal of the day, because after a good night’s sleep, I wake up ready to eat everything in sight. I love breakfast because of the endless options available, either at home or a quick roll down the slope, to any of my early morning haunts. When at home, my first and simplest choice would be fresh oven hot Undes from my neighbouring baker, spread with chilled butter, a couple of eggs sunny side up sprinkled with cracked pepper and a large mug of coffee, whose consumption has unfortunately become mandatory in order to keep at bay my split personality that thrives on a lack of caffeine. Perfectly cooked scrambled eggs are a very suitable substitute, and I can confidently say that I have mastered the art of scrambling eggs, and getting them absolutely soft without any milk being added. If there are any Goan sausages lying around its great, and if there happen to be Portuguese or Spanish chorizo, its fantastic. Awesome is finding rashers of hickory smoked bacon, fried to a stiff crisp to top it off. However the nature of these ingredients and their nutritional value in combination with my size allows me to indulge once a week, or twice at best. My second option is a slight healthier, but just about, vegetarian fare. The mix bhaji concept is great because it allows you to try more than one dish, eaten with puris fried fresh, served straight out of the pan, steam still trapped in its bell, or bread. A mirchi or two on the side dipped in coconut chutney are amazing and absolutely unnecessary yet a must have. Over indulgence would be the buns, and although written in plural, refers to a single unit of fluff trapped in between the realms of sweet and savoury, amazing dipped in tea or even eaten as a substitute to the puri along with a bhaji. Then there’s the ever popular south Indian option that’s been around for forever. My favourite in this genre is the cheese masala dosa. This innovative fusion of south and west adds a sublime salty creaminess to the crispy dosa. What I love about the potato bhaji in these dishes is the addition of sweet caramelised onions, lentils that give it an earthy texture and one of my favourite aromatics, the curry leaf. In my younger days when my body still knew what to do with fatty foods, I would have an idli, perfectly steamed, cut into slices and deep fried. Dipped in tomato ketchup it is the perfect desi version of French fries. For a breakfast on the run, a stop at my favourite Goan snack counter, hits the spot. Paosinhos, small bread roils, slathered with mayonnaise and stuffed with roast beef washed down with pre mixed coffee from a machine (that I don’t care for too much but require in order keep at bay the aforesaid cranky side of me). Breakfast is so important that some famous guy said, “One should not attend even the end of the world, without a good breakfast.”
