When you have to brunch...Victory's Banner

I admit it; I'm not a big breakfast eater. I know you're supposed to eat a substantial breakfast in order to be healthful and all that stuff, but I just can't do it. Whenever I eat a large breakfast, I end up eating a large lunch, dinner and several 'substantial' snacks in addition. I can't help it; eating begets more eating in my lack-o-willpower mind! So I keep it very simple and safe most mornings.

However, I am married to someone who looooves breakfasts, brunches and anything else he can ingest before noon. There are times that I compromise and agree to go out to brunch on a weekend day. If we wait long enough it works for me, too. By 11:00 AM or noon, I'm actually starting to get hungry, especially if we've gone to the gym beforehand. When this happens, I often push to visit Victory's Banner.

Victory's Banner is an all-vegetarian breakfast and lunch establishment that's run by students of the Spiritual master Sri Chimnoy. Their promise is to serve you 'joyfully', which they certainly do. They're a very laidback yet helpful bunch of people.

Since this is my first contribution to our food blog, I'll also confess here that I'm quite choosy about what I eat. I don't eat red meat or poultry (couldn't stop eating seafood, though), I don't ingest anything partially hydrogenated or that contains corn syrup-type stuff, blah-betty-blah-blah. I'm also sensitive to a few foods. So I have problems now and then taking myself out in public for a decent meal. This is one reason Victory's Banner appeals to me. I know that anything I order here is going to be scrumptious and good for me, to boot! They make incredibly delicious food that virtually anyone, no matter what they prefer, will delight in eating.

I know what you meat-eaters are thinking. How can I possibly enjoy a meal that doesn't include animal flesh? It's not as difficult as you may think. Dirk is a hard-core carnivore-omnivore (check out his Hot Doug's post and you'll know what I mean), yet he tells me he 'barely' misses the meat. In fact, he often orders their Stripples, a non-meat bacon alternative. Despite the masochistic nipple torture moniker (well, that's what sprang to mind for me), stripples do taste similar to bacon. You do need to get past the scary neon-pink marble look of stripples though, so be prepared.

Allow me to dish about the breakfast entrees. You were wondering when I'd get to that, right? I'll start with our favorites. I adore the Eggless Wonder, which is a lightly stir-fried tofu and vegetable dish. It's created by lovingly combining marinated tofu with broccoli, onion, tomato, mushroom, zucchini, potato, goat cheese and brown rice into a piping hot mixture that satisfies your by-now starving stomach. The goat cheese is what really lifts this dish from the potentially mundane into the zone of Fulfilling and Nourishing. Being the allergic / sensitive soul I am, I always ask them to leave out the onions. Unlike some stuffy places, the VB wait staff acquiesces with a smile. You will get the feeling that they actually want you to be happy and satisfied upon leaving their restaurant.

Dirk almost always gets the Satisfaction Promise, which consists of two eggs scrambled with spinach, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and feta. He says it's a hearty combo of flavors. All of their egg dishes are nudged into breakfast-lover contentment by the addition of warmed hearth bread and grilled potatoes. BTW, they use Phil's eggs (cage-free, vegetarian-fed!), so you can rest easy knowing your eggs didn't come from some ill-fed, miserable chicken.

VB also offers many omelettes, including a soy sausage and Gouda which has gotten rave reviews in our circle of family and friends (again, several meat-eaters in the group loved this one). For the sweet-toothed among us, choose from pancakes, French toast, or waffles. I suggest either version of VB's French Toast. One is touted as their 'Award-Winning' French toast. Believe it! It's served with peach butter and warm maple syrup (genuine, of course). They also dish up Raspberry French Toast with powdered sugar, which bursts with juicy raspberries. The pancake menu includes oat bran for the health-conscious sweet tooth, apple pecan, and chocolate chip (also features a kid-size portion - smart move!). Waffles come in similar flavor combinations, for those who prefer their sweets in a checkered pattern.

You have an option of ordering granola, yoghurt, and hot oatmeal if you want to keep it simple. Once you sit down after inhaling the scents around you, you'll probably pass on those and run through the heartier menu choices. Drinks include a reasonably good coffee, a thick hot chocolate (recommended by me!), and a selection of wonderful teas. I often order the organic ginger tea, a powerful ginger boot to the brain that provides a natural kick- I mean, pick-me-up. If you aren't feeling like coffee but want to remember that you are, indeed, awake, choose this. Ginger is great for your digestion, you know, so you win twice!

If you have a sweet tooth but don't wish to devote your entire meal to a sugary entree, I vote for one of VB's homemade muffins to begin your meal. On occasions that Dirk and I are there together or with family / friends, we order a muffin or two to temporarily satiate our appetites while we're waiting for the rest of the meal. The chocolate muffin is fragrant and cocoa-ish; mm-mmm. The raspberry muffin uses the same succulent raspberries that are swirled into the pancakes. Yum!

There is one downside of visiting Victory's Banner. Ever since some traitor went on Check, Please! and regaled the audience with how wonderful VB is, the place has been extremely crowded on weekends. Before that, they were reasonably busy, but not outrageously crowded. If you don't arrive before 9:30AM or so on a Saturday or Sunday, you'll probably have to give your name and wait around for a table to open up for your party of whatever. If this was a giant restaurant, it probably wouldn't be an issue. They would have a waiting area / room for their guests who had to wait for a table. However, VB seems determined to stay in their present space, which is no longer large enough to hold their famished fan base. They have a dinky little waiting area (translated - a small bench) that holds three or four people. So you'll be spilling out into the street if it's warm, or literally be standing amongst the tables if it's cold, doomed to stare at patrons eating a luscious breakfast while your knees grow weaker and weaker. I have witnessed people waiting actually trying to stare down the lucky people sitting at a table. I suppose they're trying to shame the people at the tables into leaving.

Unless someone decides to use a table just to sip coffee and stretch out to read the Sunday paper on a busy Sunday (I've seen that too - come on people, where are your manners?), then those of us waiting simply need to relax, say a mantra to ourselves, and be patient. You will get your turn, too! Then it will be your choice to decide whether or not to begin your meal with a delectable muffin while you wait for the Promise of Satisfaction. Namaste, and bon appetit!