Breakfast at Cafe France

time check: 07:30 am

Hello Sunshine! I want you to meet my sister, Patis. She's 13 years old (or maybe fourteen, haha!) and is crazy about Paris. She wears T-shirts with "Paris" or "Bonjour" on them. Her school notebooks have the word "Paris" or the image of Eiffel tower  on the cover. Her facebook cover page reads "Paris is not a city, it's a world". I am pretty sure she will be getting a French elective in college just so she can have a piece of her dream city. Or dream world.

Two weeks before the opening of the school year, my mother sent my sister from Cagayan Valley (where they are based) to Metro Manila so I can fulfill one of my ate (elderly sister) obligations - shop school stuff for her. One of the roles I take seriously even if it means an empty wallet and an overused credit card is that of being an ate - to contribute to my siblings' happiness, at any cost. :) 

After a Saturday of shopping, I invited my sister and my brother (and Alan of course) to a Before Nine breakfast date to where else but Cafe France. I was too "Paris, France"-literal that even if the cafe does not really serve French food except for their breads (hello baguette), I just thought that it is the perfect breakfast place to indulge in my sister's Paris dreams. And then we headed to Bizu, another French-inspired restaurant for dessert.

I love having breakfast with my little ones. I so miss being with my family. It has been so long since we have been in one place and we're such a super-sized family (seven in the brood) with each one of us growing up and growing old quickly - it is a little bit challenging to gather all of us in one place at the same time. I am getting nostalgic here. Hay, hay, hay!!!

What we had for breakfast:

I had to beg for them to look into the breakfast portion of the menu, nothing more - haha!

01-02 Breakfast Deluxe

menu description: Served with Freshly-Brewed Coffee, Premium Orange Juice, Fresh Fruit Plate and your choice of bread with butter and strawberry jam

The two boys had the Breakfast Deluxe. I was tempted to go all Nazi on them and demand that they order different meals for diversification (haha) but what the boys want, the boys get. The Breakfast Deluxe is served with all the breakfast goodness in one plate - it took me great self-restraint to not order one for myself. 

03 Crispy Bacon and Egg Breakfast Tray

menu description: Served with Freshly-Brewed Coffee, Premium Orange Juice, Fresh Fruit Plate and your choice of bread with butter and strawberry jam

Patis' order. :) I do not think it elicit and French-inspiration but the crispy bacon is (and always will be) a heavenly-inspiration. Haha!

04 Spicy Sardines Omelet

menu description: Served with freshly-baked breads and your choice of Freshly-Brewed Coffee, Orange Juice, Four Seasons or Iced Lemon Tea

My order. :) I wanted a big breakfast meal for myself but since the other three ordered almost the same meals, I decided to try this instead. I though it had too many onions (I am still in the process of appreciating onions in any form) but the meal itself is a whole new breakfast flavor for me. Spicy with the right amount of saltiness, enveloped in foamy-on-the-inside and soft omelet. Yes, super yes, to breakfast love.

We headed to Bizu after for our breakfast dessert. I honestly cannot take in more but I wanted so badly for Patis to experience what I felt when I first entered Bizu several years back - it hits ones Paris' dreams right to the core with its flamboyant and dreamy interiors.

the menu tells the story

So intricately beautiful. We were so careful not to ruin the presentation at first but the Chocolate Souffle Cake and the Mango Cheesecake (I think it has a fancier name, I just forgot) need to be eaten.

via tumblr

If only I can bottle up Paris and send it over to Cagayan Valley so my sister can be swamped and blessed with "overjoy", I will do it. I know how it is to want something badly, to dream about something every night (and even day) - and I can only hope she is not as impatient as me and enjoy nurturing this dream. To find joy in reading about it in books or in blogs, in coming across pictures in magazines and cutting them and pasting them on her Paris vision board, in wearing T-shirts with the Eiffel Tower image or the word "Bonjour" on them, to write on notebooks with images of Paris on the cover - to do all these with great joy and satisfaction. 

 

And then one day, at that perfect time, she can finally see the world she has only seen in books and blogs and T-shirts and notebook covers - and actually be in Paris.

To the Universe, please, let us make this happen. :) 

All Sunshiny,

Tina

Cafe France and Bizu have branches in most parts of Metro Manila

We had our breakfast in their Greenhills branch.