October 18th.
Again, another blog post that was written a long, long time ago. I'll make amends, I promise...
Meeting people is easy. Both the title of a Radiohead tour documentary that finds the band feeling increasingly alienated following the success of their third album, OK Computer, and a statement of truth. So long as the two people want to meet up and hang out, there’s little reason for there to be any difficulty in a meeting happening. OK, well, perhaps if one of the two has diarrhea & vomiting and lives on a different continent, that might make things tricky, but otherwise, I would say that meeting people is easy.
This is a conclusion that Ollie Fournier has come to. Ollie was making his first return to Brighton for about 3 years, and was slightly annoyed with himself that it had been that long. He had moved to London once he had finished his degree, but the rigours of employment had deprived him of the impetus to make the short pilgrimage to the coast. Now living in Cambridge with a satisfying job that leaves him plenty of free time, Ollie is looking to make amends.
In this first instance of his new attitude, he has a friend who he hadn't seen for an inexcusably long time. Deciding that enough was enough, Ollie simply sent a message asking them to name a time and a place for them to meet up and that was that. Easy peasy. Our meet-up for breakfast was arranged in a similarly efficient manner.
I first met Ollie playing in a Stop The Cuts Bank Holiday 5-a-side football tournament. Our team, Workers of the World Utd (probably my favourite pun football team name, just ahead of Lokomotiv Sodor), were victorious, seeing off a team of black bloc anarchists and the Justin Fashanu All-Stars among others en route to victory. His footballing and immediate friendliness were instrumental in the early shaping of Kemptown F.C., and without his input it would doubtless be a very different team.
In Cambridge, Ollie is currently the organizer of play schemes for kids with the University of Cambridge. It sounds like an ideal job; he gets to work towards something fun and has the responsibility to work his hours flexibly. Excitingly, for the (then) upcoming half-term he was hoping to arrange for the kids to do some Parkour.
His argument is that Parkour is ideal as it is a form of process-based play, rather than outcome-based. This means that the reward comes from the process of participating, rather than the outcome of winning something. As it is a form of challenging oneself and passing one’s own boundaries, it is suitable for children of all abilities. Just so long as no one face plants into a handrail, it is a compelling argument.
In that respect, I would say that this breakfast blog was similar to Parkour. As I’ve acknowledged previously, it will be nigh on impossible for me to sample every single vegetarian cooked breakfast in Brighton; there is a vast multitude and new ones are opening every week. Treating this fastbreaking as an outcome-based project is not the way to go. Rather, it is a process-based project. The fun and joy of it is in the meeting up with friends and eating some (hopefully) hearty food.
And so, the breakfast…
Veggie Full English
Scrambled egg, baked beans, mushrooms, grilled tomato, hash brown and granary toast, with two grilled Linda McCartney sausages and an extra hash brown (plus a complimentary small coffee, pot of tea or 8oz orange juice.
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| Veggie Full English - £6.99 |
The Love Fit Café is also similar to Parkour (vaguely) in the keen eye it has on health and fitness at all times (you don’t often see an out-of-shape individual attempting Parkour). The casual and easy-going atmosphere gives way to a menu that gives healthiness precedence. Many options on the menu can be served with extra shots of protein. You can even find out the precise nutritional content of your breakfast.
Nothing as maverick as that in the breakfast, but it did come with a complimentary beverage of choice. I opted for the orange juice which was freshly squeezed. Delicious and zingy.
The breakfast itself:
Calories 711
Protein 51.1g
Carbs 60.4g
Sugar 12.3g
Fat 17.6g
Salt 4.9g
2 of your 5-a-day.
The plate was full and some care was taken with the breakfast’s delivery. A small garnish of parsley and separate packet of butter left the amount of spreading to my discretion.
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| Meeting Ollie is now easy |
I was eager to try the egg, with personal and professional egg failures fresh in my mind. The scrambling had been done well, giving a solid yet fluffy texture. The other items that require careful cooking were also well done. The mushrooms were succulent and the tomato seemed friendly in its soft juiciness. It was welcoming, though no additional flavouring was present on these items.
It was notable that the food had been cooked in as healthy way as possible. This was most evident in the sausages, bearing the scars of grilling proudly. These Linda McCartney sausages were hot and firm, their solidity contrasting wonderfully with the other fleshy items.
The other components all shared a certain chunkiness. The beans felt sizable and were fruity without further softness. The toast, too, was chunky in a triumphant way. Crisp rustic bread that was wonderfully chewy.
Unfortunately, there is another form of chewiness. A chewiness that is unwelcome and unbecoming. This was the fate of the hash browns, which sadly had been overdone. The potato was subdued as a result and ultimately the browns came across as a re-hash of the toast.
Overall, it was a pleasant breakfast. The complimentary drink represents great value for money and on the whole the dish tasted good. Perhaps it could have benefited with a little less attention to healthiness and a little more attention to delivering some outstanding flavours. I feel as though additional seasoning wouldn’t comprise Lovefit Café’s mission and would improve the dish no end.
Still, one of the great selling points of the vegetarian breakfast is that it can be one of the funnest and most warming ways to make major inroads to your 5-a-day. With my orange juice I would argue that I was over half the way there way ahead of lunchtime. It is nice to have a café that makes me feel like I’m doing my body good as well as my spirit. A little bit of outcome to go along with my process isn’t bad every now and then.
Function: felt healthy and heart-warming - 4/5
Adherence to Canon: Yes
Taste: tasted fine, but have benefitted seasoning - 3/5
Value: complimentary drink? Right on! - 4/5
Presentation: looks good and good attention paid to healthfulness - 5/5
Venue: comfy, although the toilet has a weird security lock - 3/5
Overall: a lot of love and a little bit of fit in this breakfast - 4/5
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