The breakfast buffet

"in this battle the true victor is determined not by how much you’ve eaten for breakfast — but by how little you need to buy for lunch." The Huff Post

I certainly ate too much for breakfast this morning. The picture is the hotel restaurant here which serves breakfast. The section on the right is just part of the selection. It contains all the hot food (well not the eggs - they are elsewhere), but this morning, for example it included a Thai stir fry as well as the usual things to go with the eggs. In this section there is also an array of cold meats and fish, cheese, and felafel with hummus and other lovely things. Then of course there are the pastries and the breads, not to mention the pancakes, mueslis and fruit. And this is actually a fairly modest spread in comparison to some I have seen.

For me they are one of the treats of hotels, And I still think the best one I have come across was at the Hyatt Regency here in Dubai. The middle-eastern section there was particularly tempting. The most disappointing was at Lake House, Daylesford, which publicises itself as a gourmet retreat but really it was very poor. And I'm not talking about choice and quantity here - this was not huge but I wasn't expecting it to be - no it was the quality - very lame. The croissants are better in Coles! Lovely place to stay though.

And no I didn't need lunch after this morning's breakfast. Well I think most people gorge themselves at these breakfasts and although I don't take as much as some, I certainly take more than I should. I took two felafel this morning and I really only needed one - they are small but surprisingly filling.

Some breakfast buffet experiences:

Club Med. Also huge of course - with the normal range being boosted by leftovers like chocolate mousse and crème caramel, which I discovered, was the perfect breakfast food for me. For I'm not really a breakfast person. I don't actually like chewing things much. Here in the hotel I've had a bit of time to come to, but at home I'm too sleepy to manage much more than a piece of toast. So crème caramel is perfect. It slides down your throat with no effort and is sweet enough to give you a sugar hit that will get you going. And it goes perfectly with coffee - the breakfast essential. But I'm not up to making myself crème caramel at home and I don't buy such things ready made on principle, which is perhaps a bit silly.

The Hilton in Adelaide. This can't have been my first hotel buffet breakfast but it certainly has that feeling for me. We went there sometimes for an outing. You didn't have to stay there - you just had to pay - like in an ordinary restaurant. I remember it being a mere $10.00 but maybe it was $20. It was back in the 80s, so a long time ago. We took the children with us for a treat - and if you were lucky you might see someone famous - for at the time it was Adelaide's best hotel. Nowadays, of course, there is all-day breakfast everywhere - though not in buffet format.

A lovely b&b in Italy - well several of them really. But this one I remember particularly for including several home-made cakes and pastries. So I'm hoping that the b&bs we are staying at this time will be just as good. Starting with tomorrow's hotel in Le Thoronet, France - a bit north of Cannes where all of the film world is now, Not that we shall be eating breakfast there tomorrow - that will be on Saturday - or here either as we leave early. No tomorrow it will be another airline breakfast. Not something to look forward to!