Ruminating with Robin at Iydea

March 16th.


"If it's beautifully arranged on a plate, you know someone's fingers have been all over it." - Julia Child

A nice wee aphorism, that, and one that sits well with my almost philistine position on culinary presentation. I generally abhor food that is deemed classy or aesthetically refined, as this normally means that the portions will be insignificant and unsubstantial. I mean, a meal needs to fill you up as well as tasting good, right? That is the wonderful thing about aphorisms, and creative writing in general; you can easily encapsulate a theory or a person with just 16 words. This is why Robin Spottiswoode's most recent product, the choose-your-own quote print, is an ace idea. There's nothing like having a belief or thought summed up succinctly and intelligently, and his new product allows you to select your own bons mots and have them printed off for your own personal use in the home and work place. Imagine the possibilities! Imagine them, then place an order! Go here: http://electricfairground.com/

I met Robin at Exeter Uni at some undetermined point early on in our first year, probably due to a mutual enjoyment of our halls of residence's bar, the Welly. Since moving to Brighton we have played music and football together, and Robin has exhibited great prowess in using his hands throughout, be it with accordion or goalkeeper gloves. He also puts his hands to good use in the creation and purveyance of various gadgets and handy items. Personalised doormats, Scrabble-themed table reservations, football-themed Rubik's cubes; these are some of the things that he has been working on of late. Some of these things (and more!) can be viewed at another website of his here. Sadly his vajazzle kits are not on there.

Robin shares several things in common with me, as well as the music and football, and so conversation meandered around these areas; the difficulties of pacing yourself when needing to drink alcohol over the course of a day, the dangers of using social network websites after one of these said days, lucid dreaming, discovering new music (apparently there was an Irish-folk revival in Germany in the 90s) and special clubs and societies that we were involved with at school, all of these were examined. Robin was a member of Ghost Club and Clocko, much more exciting than Porn Club which I briefly attended whilst in Year 6, which consisted of a group of us sitting in a tree and looking at pictures from page 3 of The Sun that one of our members had liberated from his parents' recycling.

We also briefly chatted about Robin's cooking video project. For a little while Robin has been filming his friends cook, asking them to take him through the process for one particular dish of their choosing. In the near future there will be a video up of me attempting to cook that traditional Scottish dish, risotto. It's a fun project, and one that I feel has a similar motive to my breakfast one. The creation of these videos, viewable on Robin's youtube account, emphasise the social interaction of the instruction as much as the instruction itself, thereby holding them as equally important. Hopefully my breakfast reviews are doing a similar thing.

And so, the breakfast:

Small Breakfast

Lincolnshire style sausage, balsamic tomato, hash brown, mushroom and avocado stir fry, smokey beans and scrambled eggs

Small Breakfast - £4.50

As my opening reference and following paragraph explained, I am not a fan of flashy food. My initial concern when viewing the menu was that this was what Iydea would provide. Another concern I had was with what size meal to go for, being offered a small breakfast and a large, with no middle ground. I was conscious that my favourite breakfast so far had been one where I'd inadvertently ordered the XL version, and was wanting to try and keep a parity in dish sizes across the board where possible. Therefore I opted for the small, though was slightly apprehensive when the plate arrived, a very un-Partridge-sized one, fearing that it would not be enough to sate my hunger. There was also a curfew on breakfasts, with service ceasing at 11:15am. Fortunately the staff were kind and allowed us to place our order, despite it being closer to half past.

I shouldn't have been overly worried. I should have been able to tell that a place that has walls adorned with bunting and fairy lights, and offers artists and photographers space to display their work, would be a place wanting to provide a homely and hearty meal rather than swanky nibbles. A screen flashing various messages also gave me the quote with which I have opened this account, and this should have automatically put me at ease. As it was, I didn't feel entirely comfortable until I had tucked into the breakfast, which happened to be only a few minutes after placing the order!

Founding member of Ghost Club

I began with the baked beans. These were a take on baked beans that I had not previously experienced, moving away from a traditional focus on the tomato sauce and instead concentrating on their pulsey nature. These resultant beans reminded me of a hearty stew that my Mum often makes, being equal parts smoky, salty and wholesome. These were very hearty. These were so homely that they reminded me of my Mum. Wow. I then moved onto the scrambled egg. If I'd gone for the larger version of the breakfast I would have had the option of poached eggs. Nervous. Again, apprehensive, following my previous experiences with scrambled eggs. These eggs though were warm and reassuringly eggy. The moisture level was spot on, not being too moist or too dry, and there were no other flavours encroaching in what was assuredly an ovulary matter.

Whilst I am in a celebratory rhythm, I am going to get the sausage out of the way. It was stodgy, wholemeal and dry. It didn't need to be there. It had less personality than Lincolnshire has. There is a parliamentary constituency there (as of March 2013) called 'Great Grimsby', which makes me think of a shit version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's great work. This sausage evoked the spirit of the Great Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Louth. Let us not mention the sausage again.

The mushrooms and the hash brown come under the same category of 'riiiiiiich'. The avocado stir fry technique was a resounding success, creating a serving of large funghi that were succulent and passionate in flavour. The hash brown was softer, not featuring any of the crisp or crunch that is normally a HB mainstay, and opted instead for something slightly more flesh-like than your standard carbohydrate option, yet simultaneously the best of both worlds. The potato flavour was rich and certainly not too stodgy or starchy. The 'riiiiiiiich' triumverate was completed by the balsamic tomato, with the utilisation of balsamic vinegar masterfully bringing out the tongue-heavy tang that all good tomatoes have within.

Such were the bold strokes of taste across my palette that the small dish was an ample amount. I was taken aback, being someone of occasionally monstrous appetite. If I was feeling particularly famished then I could have gone for an upgrade at £7, and it would be interesting to see if this was too much for me to handle. Probably not, but I imagine I would feel uncomfortable afterwards. The breakfast at Iydea has certainly caused me to rethink my prejudices against upmarket, stylish eateries. Without a doubt it has been the tastiest breakfast I have experienced thus far, and I felt well served for my money (although additional things like freshly squeezed orange juice were priced similarly to beer). It is a specifically vegetarian cafe, and a breakfast as hearty and wholesome as this would go a decent way to taking down carnivorous naysayers with its armada of flavours. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to change someone's preconceived iydeas re: vegetarian breakfasts.

"Cultivation of the mind is as necessary as food to the body." - Cicero

Function: reminded me of my mum, cockles warmed 5/5
Adherence to canon: Yes
Taste: riiiiiiiiiiich 5/5
Value: under a fiver for a taste explosion. Other things pricey  4/5
Presentation: all squashed in, needed bigger plate 2/5
Venue: warm, friendly buzz, swift service but with curfew(!) on breakfasts 3/5

Overall: the food was spot on, the accessories could be improved - 4/5