February marks Benedict’s annual celebration of worldwide breakfasts

This is the sixth year of the global breakfast festival and there is a slight difference from previous years.

By BUZZY GORDON
Benedict (photo credit: SARIT GOFFEN)
Benedict
(photo credit: SARIT GOFFEN)
The Benedict chain of nationwide restaurants has built its reputation around the popular formula of serving breakfast 24 hours a day. And to make sure that the menu never gets boring, every February is Benedict’s “trip around the world” month, featuring international breakfast dishes.
This is the sixth year of the global breakfast festival and there is a slight difference from previous years. Over the past two years, the menu boasted a wide variety of ethnic dishes, representing five and six different countries, and even continents. This year, there are indeed five dishes on the special menu again, yet only three of them are identified by country: Bavaria (Germany), France and America. The remaining three quite clearly also reflect North American cuisine.
Additionally, while historically there has been no unifying theme connecting the dishes, this year they all fell into one broad category: eggs accompanied by grilled meats. The dishes range in price from NIS 74-139; there is, however, one less expensive vegetarian option (NIS 69).
Nonetheless, there was enough tempting variety to make choosing just one or two dishes difficult. We perused the bilingual menu, paying attention not only to the main event but also the side dishes. Unfortunately, only one of the six dishes comes with Benedict’s famous basket of bread: three different kinds of warm rolls with free refills, butter, marmalade and Nutella spread. And, unlike in previous years, no dishes come with a complimentary drink, although three do include side salads.
Our first choice of European breakfast was the French Grill: roasted goose liver medallions on French toast with Parmesan, and a poached pear in wine and saffron, served with arugula leaves, red onions, almonds and maple whiskey sauce, this was indeed a rich and sophisticated breakfast treat.
The vegetarian version was unusual and unexpected: a generous slab of roasted pumpkin, topped with a lone fried egg, and accompanied by curlycues of twice-cooked crispy potato. A nice touch was a zesty, orange homemade barbecue sauce that enhanced the starchy vegetable, while a side salad of arugula leaves with red onion and slivers of almond served as a refreshing counterpoint.
After two hearty and filling main courses, even without the benefit of starters to begin the meal, we were not that excited about ordering dessert. I recalled, however, that there was one small one I had never tried: the brioche filled with ricotta cheese (NIS 12). It turned out to be a kind of cupcake stuffed with a slightly sweet filling of plain white cheese; strangely, though, the outer pastry was warm, while the cheese inside was close to freezing cold. Not quite the finale we were hoping for.
Benedict
Not kosher
G Shopping Mall, Kfar Saba
Phone: 03-686-8657, ext. 6
The writer was a guest of the restaurant.