I love grillades and grits and biscuits and gravy. To me, the aroma of sizzling bacon mixing with brewing coffee smells like victory.
But sometimes, what I really need is a breakfast that doesn’t make me want to slouch back to bed. Lately, it’s become much easier to find a morning meal that fits that bill. Yes, even in New Orleans, meals to start the day can be lighter, fresher, often meatless, sometimes vegan.
Is it frou frou? Yeah, sometimes. But I’ve developed a periodic craving for it. It’s for those times when I want something restorative – dare I say, virtuous.
This is one of those times. Everyone knows New Year’s resolutions don’t stand much of a chance in New Orleans with Carnival season starting just days after the calendar turns. But after the last parades, there can be time for respite and healthier choices despite the Lenten fish fries, crawfish boils and St. Joseph’s altars ahead.
So, yes, I’ve had the roasted carrot yogurt at Molly’s Rise and Shine, and at HiVolt Café the bowl of eggs with greens and quinoa they call the Ozzy.
I’ve ordered one breakfast bowl at the Daily Beet often enough that the counterman has patiently counseled me on pronouncing its key ingredient - that wondrous Brazilian berry açaí (I go a little Cajun with it).
As a food writer trying to keep up with the rapacious appetites and ever-changing restaurant scene in this town, I’ve worked out a few tactics to balance the nutritional books. One is periodically replacing a conventional meal with a smoothie or juice.
The idea is to pour a condensed cornucopia of vitamin-packed plants into your body by the gulp. So I’ve been hitting up the Green Fork in the Lower Garden District, Lamara on North Broad Street and the Antidote Juice café downtown, leaving with a meal in a cup, essentially.
It’s about balance. If eating well across this city has taught me one thing, it’s that ledger must be righted.
Seriously, if you can’t eat a little lighter now, and at breakfast no less, you never will. Now pass me the chia seed pudding and don’t you dare pour me any decaf.
