You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

A breakfast meeting at L'Espresso Bar Mercurio is a great way to start the day. Rarely if never finding any good espresso when I venture into the U of T zone, someone who knows recommended we meet at Mercurio, and thank god we did. Filled with faculty and students who were not cramming in their jammies, the place had a consistent line up to the door. A decent espresso and a delicious croque madame with the right amount of bechamel sauce to ham and swiss cheese, the bread was also freshly toasted and held it all together. Made fresh to order, I will be back to sample more of their sandwich offerings, which I saw were a many.

Here lies two open face breakfast sandwiches that presume sandwiches are meant to be eaten with a knife and fork. I am torn on this issue. Once a sandwich needs cutlery, it ceases to be a sandwich, but is cutlery absolutely necessary or simply etiquette? First up, this guy from Cafe Madeline. That is not hollandaise sauce, that is melted cheese with a soft boiled egg. The egg was not runny.  The cutlery came in handy because the bread was so thick, but the plate was too big for what this is suppose to be. Not that I'm complaining about the bread. You can't see it, but the bread was the best part, mostly because the bread slice was as thick as the highest portion of ham, cheese, and egg combined. I'm not sure what kind of bread it was, but it had a great chewy density that could have been a plate unto itself. Next we have this Croque Madame (but senselessly called a Croque Monsieur, egg extra) at Qathra.  Much better plate to sandwich ratio and the salad is a ...

A damn fine Croque Madame can be found at Word of Mouth Cafe , an incredibly comfortable and chic cafe I was taken to walking up from Leith. From the well oiled dark stained wooden tables to the soaps in the loo, the overall aesthetic of the cafe was incredibly convivial to a certain tempo in how I like to enjoy my meals and conversations. The food was also exceptional, beginning with a very berry smoothie that reminds me of home, classic crispy frites which I never knew I missed until being only offered chunky rubbery chips, a light vinaigrette over the mixed salad, and a very well done croque madame, with the right saltiness of ham to cheese, with the egg seemingly embedded into the top of the really good thick slice of bread. The clincher was the liberal use of dried parsley, which is a sight for sore eyes, dashed over everything hot and visually tied it all into the salad. Maybe the food in Scotland has just been really bad, but I went really wild for this meal as it's fresh an...