Aunt Mary’s Serves Up Breakfast
During the episode of Master Chef when the contestants had to cook up eggs four different ways – poached, soft boiled, sunny side fried, and an omelet, I wanted to be a part of that. I’m pretty good at cooking up breakfast food, so I don’t tend to go out to eat breakfast very often. When I do, I am looking for something special.
Aunt Mary’s in the Temescal area of Oakland is pretty special. Even Guy Fieri thinks so.
He was at Aunt Mary’s a while back to shoot Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. A friend of mine and I recently paid Aunt Mary a visit. We waited about twenty minutes before we were seated, an unusually short wait according to yelp. The time went by quick as we were able to help ourselves to coffee.
Many things on the menu looked good. My friend and I decided to share a few things. We had the Pain Perdue, which is a Cajun style French toast made with baguettes soaked in a whiskey laced custard served with white wine fresh fruit compote. This dish is baked to order and takes 20 minutes. It seems like it might be a really heavy dish and really sweet. It was soft and light and had the perfect amount of sweetness. It was delicious.
The other main dish we ordered was the Southern Bubble and Squeak which are potato-Southern greens cakes with pot likker gravy, topped with eggs, with a biscuit, and a side of greens. I liked this a lot more than my friend. It was pure comfort melting in my mouth. They must call it pot likker gravy because you will want to lick it up.
In addition, we ordered two sides. We had a side of sausage. The added fennel in the pork was nice. My friend liked it a lot and reminded her of eating a Chinese pork dish her mom makes.
The other side was grits with cheddar cheese. I actually like my grits to be on the runny side with a poached egg next to it. It was tasty, but I’m not convinced that this is something I will ever be a big fan of.
Aunt Mary’s is a great place for breakfast and I will be back to see her when I don’t feel like cooking up my own.