I have not been going out as much recently because, well, I’ve gotten fat again!  Instead I have joined Slimming World and I am (half heatedly, tbh) attempting to shift those ‘few’ pounds back off.  It doesn’t mean I’ve not been out… just that I have been experimenting more in my kitchen again!

A good restaurant type one to talk about is this one though… mostly because every time I think about it, I drool!

We needed a proper breakfast before heading to Comicon (yep… I went, and nope, I didn’t have a clue what was going on 90% of the time!), but I’ve been reading about so many lovely breakfast spots that I convinced The Boy that we needed to try somewhere new!

At the top of my list was the Clinton Street Baking Company.  I’ve heard so many good things about their pancakes that I knew it would take all my strength to order something vaguely healthy and/or not pancakes dripping in syrup!  American menus don’t really do healthy starts unless you eat fruit and granola, and they are week day foods!

I was right.  It was incredibly hard.  I decided on the Buttermilk Biscuit Sandwich, which has obviously the biscuits, beef bacon (optional extra), scrambled egg, melted cheese, homemade tomato jam (which didn’t make sense but I thought I’d give it a bash), and hash browns.

The Boy ordered the Country Breakfast which is scrambled egg, roasted tomato, chicken sausages, hash browns and a biscuit, with an order of beef bacon on the side.

While we were deciding what to order however, the conversation came onto the fact that I haven’t had proper pancakes for a good 15+ years now.  Last time is when I was in on holiday in Florida but sadly, not soon after that, I was diagnosed with a wheat intolerance.  As you may know, I’ve recently and happily discovered I have grown out of that!

(Still doing the dance of joy!)

Anyway, when the lovely lady came by to take our order, The Boy made an executive decision and ordered a stack of chocolate chunk pancakes with warm maple butter for us to share it as a ‘starter’.  I totally love that man!  What a great idea!  Ok, so I am still going to dieters hell, but at least it’s not as bad as it could have been!  And, in fairness, we had no idea they were going to be such a generous portion!!

I honestly do not have the words to properly explain how good they were.  At all.  I will not and cannot do them justice.  They were fluffy and warm, and sticky with melted chocolate, but with chunks still with a bit of crunch in there too.  The maple butter was a perfect buttery blend of sweetness, with neither flavour being over bearing.  They disappeared in absolute record timing.  I don’t think I was capable of pausing for breath.  I was however a very good and selfless girl, and let The Boy have the last few bites… whilst secretly planning to visit again without him and eat the entire lot all by myself!

(Upon reflection, I decided this would be a bad idea for many reasons.)

(Upon further reconsideration, death by chocolate pancakes sounds like a good way to go.)

Had we known how filling they were, we wouldn’t have ordered anything else.  Ok, that’s a lie.  Bit it would have been another sharing dish!

Instead, our proper breakfasts arrived…

After the A-MAZING pancakes, my hopes were very high.  Sadly, they were slightly dashed.  I didn’t really enjoy the heavy and ‘wet’ biscuits.  They aren’t how I remembered at all.  I know they vary from state to state, so I am not judging too harshly.  I just know that my friend’s Georgia variety used to be worth the pain of eating wheat for and these wouldn’t have been.

However, that was kind of made up for my the amazingly good beef bacon.  I don’t know what they do to it, but it’s honestly the best beef bacon I have ever had!  Maybe it was deep fried?  Everything tastes better deep fried.  But it wasn’t dripping in fat so that can’t be it.  Whatever.  I am trying to work out how well it would go on top of the chocolate pancakes.

(Yep… I am fully aware that I am totally ‘that’ person who goes to food hell for the combinations she dreams up.  Also, pretty much sure I should have been American and lived in the South with Paula Deen as my mother/grandmother)

I am absolutely heading back to Clinton Street Bakery for those pancakes, but I have promised myself that I have to have lost a stone before I go back.  I need some kind of restrictions in place!!

I’ll let you know if the bacon works out or not!!