International Basic Brunch: Fable Kitchen

I know what you're thinking. "She was in Vancouver two months ago. Why is she just now posting about this?" Well, the answer is, I was waiting on the pictures that were not mine. I just got them this week. So I can finally write about my International Basic Brunch and hope I remember everything.

Let me introduce you to Fable Kitchen. Fable is a Farm-to-Table (get it?) restaurant opened by Trevor Bird, a former contestant on Top Chef Canada. Everything, and I do mean everything, is made from scratch in this restaurant. To be fair, Canada takes more pride in the quality and preparation of their food so most places are from scratch or farm to table. Every place is delicious. Eat in Vancouver. But back to the point, Fable has an open air kitchen located right at the front of the restaurant. Right when you walk in you're practically in the kitchen. Get your apron and help expedite some food.

The Sunday we went to Fable was for International Basic Brunch. It was written into the game plan once Basic Brunches became a thing. Also, brunch. Duh.

Brunch because mimosas

The food here seems simple, but in that simplicity it is very confusing. I got the scrambled eggs. Or so I thought.

Do you see the eggs? No? That's because they are snuggled all comfy like in that little jar. Do you need a closer look?

See... eggs. More than just eggs too. The eggs themselves also have sauteed spinach and bacon and parmesan cream. Yep. You read that right. Parmesan CREAM! I would have purchased a can of that delectable cream and take it home and put that shit on everything!! All the things. It also came with toast and homemade jam, and a potato hash-brown/square with whatever that cream spread was. Eaten, but not shown, was the side of bacon. But when I say "side of bacon" I actually mean the 1/2" thick SLAB of pure pork belly that came with an apple puree. Because if bacon isn't good enough as is, let's make it bigger and add puree with it.

Here's an aerial view 

Everything about my dish was amazing. Actually, having to relive this meal while I write this makes me want to go back and eat it again. 

Mindee and Adriana both got the French Toast. Oh sorry, I mean they each got a half loaf of bread that was made into french toast. 

Not even exaggerating. It was half the size of the plate and 3 inches high. And it's topped with mascarpone, because more cheese, and candied walnuts. Adriana also tacked on a side of house made sausage that came with a black pepper jam (which is shown but in the background). 

International Basic Brunch was a huge success. Here is something I mentioned before though about Canadian Brunches... they fill up ridiculously fast. Two places I called that morning basically laughed at me when I asked about getting in. Fable told me if I got there when they opened I could probably get in with no wait. We did. We got there within 5 minutes of them opening and were seated immediately. What you can't tell is the restaurant is very small.. sorry "cozy".  Before we even ordered our food they had no more tables left. Another thing is no one in Canada will rush you. At all. No one will make you feel like you need to leave so they can get a new table in. So eating practically anywhere will take you two hours. WILL TAKE YOU TWO HOURS. If you are sitting at a table and it's not McDonald's you will be there for a long time. Did I stress that enough? Eating is meant to be a time to relax and talk with your friends and enjoy your food. The way food deserves to be enjoyed and the way we should always enjoy it. 

I am Sherlocked at the Perot Museum Social Science Night.

Every couple of months the Perot Museum has an evening called Social Science. It's a night where they stay open late for an adult only themed party. Last night Megan and I attended "Mysterious"; it lined up with the International Exhibit of Sherlock Holmes.

When I say themed party I don't mean the toga party you attended in college or that awkward 1920s themed bachelorette party you had to go to. When I say themed here I mean the events that are going on along the four floors of the museum all relate to the general theme of the evening. Some examples of the events are:

• The Forensic Challenge: When is a Crime Scene Not a Crime Scene?
• Forensic Botany
• A film on "How Sherlock Holmes Changed the World"
• DNA Extractions
• Fingerprint Analysis
• Composite Sketch Challenge
• Murder Mystery: Who Killed Ben Lion?

Of those events we did the following:

We went to The Forensic Challenge talk. It was about 30 minutes long, and funny story I'm almost positive the forensic anthropologist that assisted him on the case was my anthropology teacher in college.The is the only thing I will frown upon, they needed to warn you in some way that you were going to see actual explicit pictures of actual dead bodies. I saw about three bodies too many.

I did a fingerprint analysis on myself and learned that my thumb does not fit any of the 9 typical patterns of fingerprints. Even the guy running the booth was baffled by my thumb. But my other fingers matched a right loop pattern. 

The composite sketch challenge would not work for us but it seemed cool. They show you an image of a person for 7 seconds and then you are supposed to recreate what you saw. 

The Murder Mystery was all throughout the museum. We didn't actually do it, but it had potential to be really interesting. You were supposed to wander the museum looking for clues and evidence (stations set up for you to look at hair samples) and talk to suspects. We never saw any suspects. We found the booths for evidence but never any suspects. But again, we didn't actually partake in that events. 

The biggest disappointment though was the International Exhibit of Sherlock Holmes wasn't included in the price of your event ticket. I don't remember seeing that written anywhere when you purchase your tickets, but I do remember there was no option to buy an exhibit ticket when you were checking out online. We were not happy about that. It was almost the entire reason we were there. I had to talk Megan into buying a ticket by telling her it was essentially the cost of a drink. The exhibit itself looked cool BUT it was way too crowded and there was no clear set up as to what you were supposed to do. It's a murder mystery in itself, where you go to stations and look at evidence and solve the crime. After room one I was over the murder mystery and just wandered about the exhibit looking at stuff and things. It looked cool. It all looked cool. If less people were in there I would have tried to put effort into the crime game but it is what it is. 

            

While all of this is going on though you can wander the entire museum and look at all the permanent exhibits sans crying, screaming, running children and with booze.

Here's me trying to outrun a T-Rex. Jurassic Park could be real. I need to train.

Speaking of booze, they had specialty cocktails for this event, Spyglass Sour (Tuaca Lemon Drop Martini) and the Curious Southern Comfort Caramel (Southern Comfort Caramel and Sprite). 

Tasty drinky drinks

In addition to the actual cocktails they had a station with frozen cocktails. Booze infused ice cream is the best. 

These tiny samples were not enough. More was needed.

They did claim to have turned their cafe into a "Gastropub". I use quotes because it depends on your definition of gastropub. It was more than they had British-themed food options that they took forever to put on the line. We went an hour into the event to get food because everyone and their mom was eating first thing. We both wanted the fish and chips but there weren't any ready. We were behind one couple waiting for food, after about 15 minutes there was a crowd of closer to 12 waiting for food to be put up. They were making it fresh, but they were making them one at a time. Were my fish and chops and strawberry rhubarb tart (more like all strawberry no rhubarb tart) and champagne worth the $17 dollars and 20 minute wait? No. Just no. It was fine. It was food. But the cost was high for what I received. I recommend you eat before you go to one one these events.

But besides the food, and the slight disorganization of the event it was totally worth it. We ended up staying an hour and a half longer than I guessed we would. Downside, it was pouring rain and it ruined my chance to play leap frog like the adult I am.

All in all here is what I think of The Perot Museums' Social Science Adult Program:

1. Eat before you go. 

2. Go in with a semi-game plan. It can be overwhelming with the crowd and the events. Also, it will take longer to get to places than you would think. We missed some events just because time got away from us.

3. If you want to do whatever additional traveling exhibit is there know you are going to need to buy a ticket once you get there.

4. Totes go to one though! I already bought my tickets for the next one on June 19th titled Naturally. 

The Drunken Rabbit- Rather Sober- Easter Egg Hunt Brunch of Misery and Defeat.

I don't intend to write every week unless I do something that is really interesting and time sensitive. This event ended up being both time sensitive (Easter related) and an interesting story. Read "interesting" not "awesome". I fully believe this will be the worst brunch review I will ever write and I just started this en devour.

Earlier this week I found this "Drunk Rabbit Easter Egg Hunt Brunch" on Instagram. It was positioned as a local event at The Cellar out in Irving/Las Colinas where they offered brunch and an adult-only Easter egg hunt following. Drinks were $2 mimosa and $4 Bloody Marys and the event itself cost $20, reservations required. I did some additional research about this particular event and found it incredibly difficult to find. The Cellar website had no posts about it. They had no tweets about it on their Twitter. I eventually found a Facebook event that had no interaction on it. They clearly didn't want people to know about it. (I should have seen this as a sign.)

Delicious warm mimosa

My friend Jamie and I reserved tickets and ventured out there all excited about our cheap mimosas and Easter egg hunt. Why wouldn't we be. All of that sounds awesome! Upon arrival we walked into The Cellar to nothing. We followed some other girls downstairs (to the cellar... clever) and we see a couple rows of tables set up with a small amount of people and a tiny buffet. No one is there to tell you what to do. Do we seat ourselves? Are the tables set up by reservation? I have my ticket, is anyone going to take it, or scan it, or just casually glance at my phone screen with false interest to make sure that I followed the rules? We find the only table left open, it was all the way in the back corner, in the dark, under a fan, and had no chairs. Thankfully the girls that came in just before us didn't need all their chairs so we grabbed them for ourselves. Again, we are left with a feeling of complete confusion. Do we wait for the waitress? Do we just get up and eat? Eventually someone told us that the waitresses (sorry, waitress, there was only one) is only there to give drinks, food and non-alcoholic beverages are at the buffet. Oh and the buffet wasn't fully ready with all the hot food but if we wanted to eat we could.

We ended up getting biscuits, sans gravy since that wasn't ready yet, sausage, potatoes, pancakes, deviled eggs, some grapes (which were still in giant bushels on the serving platter, no one bothered to separate them a little), donut holes or cake pops, neither of us were really sure, and some mini muffins. Let's go through these items one by one:

1. Biscuits: Clearly Grand biscuits that were either made the night before or a little over done. The outside was very dry but the inside were decent. Gravy or butter would have gone a long way.
2. Sausage: This was decent. We each only had one.
3. Potatoes: Literally the best thing on the buffet. 
4. Pancakes: Seemed like they were cooked the night before.
5. Deviled Eggs: So I don't eat deviled eggs, it's something about the whipped center so I tried one and wasn't sure if it tasted right or not. Since I couldn't tell I assumed they weren't supposed to taste the way they did. Jamie loves deviled eggs and told me they were not supposed to taste the way they did. Neither of us finished our singular deviled egg.
6. Grapes: Unless you served me rotten fruit it would be real difficult to screw this one up.
7. Donut Holes/Cake Pops: Sugar-coated sugar overdosing on sugar. I think I got a cavity just looking at them. Pretty sure they were purchased from Kroger the day before from the bakery clearance rack.
8. Mini Muffins: Again, store bought muffins. The blueberry were good, the bran were dry,

Our table lacked ketchup, so I stole some from another table. We shared our hot sauce with this couple seated near us. Our salt would not come out of the shaker and we realized that the reason was because it was solid. We opened up the shaker and broke up the salt ourselves.

As we ate our food we started to comment on how horribly unorganized this event was. We watched as the staff (of 3) set up tables and chairs as the event went on. If you have to reserve a ticket why wouldn't you already have an idea of how many tables and chairs you need, and then over compensate? It wasn't even that crowed, maybe 50 people were there. 

This was everyone. 

Where we were sitting it was incredibly dark, which might have been a blessing since then we didn't have to see the food. Jamie went back for a second round of potatoes and also brought some concoction of food back with her. We weren't sure what it was. Jamie told me "I brought this because it has peas and meat in it. I figured we could try this together. I think it's some kind of hamburger helper." After staring at it for a moment trying to figure out what it was we both tried it. It was not good. We both basically forced ourselves to swallow it, then we washed that down with some nice warm mimosa. Yes, warm mimosa. Not warm because it was sitting there, but came to us warm. What we found out was that we ate "Breakfast Shepard's Pie". We took a camera flashlight to the plate and found potatoes (which tasted like potato chips), peas, onions, meat, cheese (?) and hopefully gravy. 

I'm sorry for that picture, but I actually ate it. So #sorrynotsorry

After "brunch", if that's what you call it, it was time for the Really Kinda Sober Rabbit Easter Egg Hunt. This lasted about a whole minute before all the eggs were taken. Depending on how close you were to the door when they announced the time to go directly affected how well you did. I got 3 eggs, Jamie got 7. The first guy that bolted out of the door had a basket full of eggs and another girl had zero. Most of the prizes were candy, some were coupons for drinks or appetizers, big eggs had little alcohol bottles. There were also some "grand prizes" but neither of us won those so not sure what they were. We left this cluster of a brunch immediately after that. 

Over-flowing with goodies

This was a series of unfortunate events. The Cellar acted like they were caught off-guard by a brunch that they planned. Everything was a scramble and nothing went according to plan it seemed. They tried but they let the idea of this event overwhelm them so it didn't reach the potential it had. It was a real disappointment to see something fail so miserably.

Attempted Athleticism and Sweatpant Brunch

This last Saturday my friend Megan and I partook in The Color Run. In case you don't know what that is I shall explain, The Color Run is a 5k (3.1 mile) run where, throughout the run, volunteers chuck powered paint at you. I did a color run a couple years ago for the first time, this was my second time.... I don't claim to be a runner. I'm guess you could call me a periodic runner, meaning I run when I randomly get motivation. Megan is not a runner. Period.

Look at me all ready and prepared for this 5k

Throw some glitter... make it rain!

If you've never done a 5k before I recommend you do one, they can get a little expensive but it's for charity. I like the ones that are either incredibly entertaining while you run or have an awesome swag bag, (The Hot Chocolate 5k for example has a comfortable and cute fleece hoodie and the most delicious chocolate fondue at the end). The Color Run is one of my personal favorites because it speaks to the starving artist/photographer in me. The best thing about most 5ks like this is it doesn't matter your level of athleticism, literally everyone participates. If you're a runner you stay to the left, if you want to walk you stay to the right, and if you do interval training like me you run wherever you damn please because rules don't apply to you!

We had a blast! One of the best things about this run was I could tell from the first time I ever ran one to this time my endurance and abilities have improved, so that was great motivation. Makes you feel good about yourself and all the work you put into working out and running might just be paying off. Since Megan isn't much of a runner at all we walked most of this 5k, but I got her to jog every now and then and I was so proud of her. Here we are with our medals.

Shiny medals.

After the run Megan and I knew we wanted to eat brunch but weren't sure how we felt about going covered in powdered paint and glitter. I suggested we don't care and go anyways, she wasn't feeling that, so we went with "Sweatpant Brunch."

Sweatpant Brunch is when you make food at home and drink mimosas. It's significantly cheaper than real brunch, you control the menu and there is no such thing as drunk driving because you are already home. Additionally, you wear whatever you want. So hello sweatpants. Or no pants. Really you do sweatpant brunch however you want to do it. No judgement here.

Sweet, sweet mimosa. I earned you today

I made my famous banana-chocolate chip muffins, scrambled eggs with spinach and pico de gallo, and bacon. Oh wait, and obviously mimosa. We did peach mimosa because peach juice is 10x better than orange juice, If you've never tried it I suggest you do it and do it soon. Actually go ahead and try that now. You'll thank me.

 

Look at that kick-ass, homemade, from scratch brunch. 

My banana-chocolate chip muffins are super easy to make:

This recipe will yield 12 regular sized muffins (one pan)

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (plain is a suggestion, I honestly use vanilla. Greek or Regular)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 mashed ripe banana
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I just put chips in until I am satisfied that I've thoroughly nullified any nutritional value) 

1. Pre-heat oven to 350
2. Combine wet ingredients (egg, yogurt, oil, vanilla extract)
3. Combine dry ingredients into wet (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt)
4. Add in banana and combine some more
5. Add in whatever about of chocolate chips you deem reasonable. 
6. Bake for 20-25 mins. (Remember, ovens vary, I usually bake mine for 23)
7. Let cool and then enjoy!

First time I ever made these muffins they were completely gone in 2 days. So that says something. 

Yum yum get in my tum!

Obviously you don't need to add chocolate chips if you don't want. You could substitute them with nuts, heath bar, probably blueberries but I've never tried it. I will always add chocolate chips because chocolate.

Obviously after a 5k and sweatpant brunch it was nap time. #NoRegrets.

So let's recap:

1. Do a 5k because it's for charity and you'll feel good about yourself once you're finished.
2. Do a sweatpant brunch once in a while because they're comfortable and cheap
3. Make my muffins. 
4. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram! 

Check you later my basic brunchers!