Many of you probably saw 7x7’s recent issue with 100 Things to Eat Before You Die. While I think some of their choices were a bit repetitive this year, it's a fun issue and always gives me a nudge towards spots I've been meaning to try and dishes I need to get my hands on. While studying their inclusions, I noticed a serious omission. For those of you who have had the pleasure of eating the homemade English muffin breakfast sandwich at Mission Beach Café, you know what I'm talking about. This may be up there with my top three favorite things to eat for breakfast in the city--with or without a glossy endorsement.
Warming up to the morning at Mission Beach Café
This place rocks on weekday mornings. It's relatively quiet, there are folks reading the paper, and neighborhood locals wander in to grab a cup of coffee and a pastry. They're pulling off quaint neighborhood eatery remarkably well. It's spacious. It's comfortable. The service is laid-back but attentive. And dear god, that sandwich. Essentially, it's a fried egg with melted cheddar, caramelized onions, and mushrooms wedged in between a satisfying homemade English muffin. The nooks and crannies catch the slightly runny egg perfectly, but there's also more of a delightful heft to the English muffins here than your typical store-bought variety.
The Breakfast Sandwich on a homemade English muffin at Mission Beach Café.
A few weeks ago, I brought two friends to Mission Beach Café. We were all catching up with each other until the waitress brought out our breakfast. I kept getting distracted and interrupting: you guys have got to try this; I wonder if you can make these English muffins at home?; do you think you have to use yeast to make English muffins? My friends loved their food, but could've used a little less talk of yeast and a little more talk of weekend plans. But the second I got home, I started researching recipes online and found one from a blog called Tracey's Culinary Adventures (a lot of food bloggers have played with this recipe by famed bread master Peter Reinhart so it must be the real deal). It seemed to be a relatively easy foray into the big, bad world of yeast (I'm a quick bread kinda' gal myself), so I set out to buy the ingredients and managed to have a whole lot of luck. I ended up adapting the recipe slightly myself, adding a little more sugar because I'd heard the sugar helps the yeast rise (and I didn’t have much luck with that the first go-around).