Forty five minutes away from my home town and up a mountain road resembling a snake sits the charming and quaint dell of Idyllwild. The mountain town is home to off beat artists, ordinary folk and reclusive millionaires, which makes for an eclectic mix. Last weekend I went up for the weekend to watch my good friend Nicky and her bandmate Alex sing great songs in a Mexican Restaurant, followed by a morning spent trekking the mountains to breathe in all that feel good air. Then the morning proceeded to to turn really lazy when we entered Cafe Aroma, a small place off the side of a sleet covered road where the sunlight glistens through the open windows taking away the coldness from the inside. The place is all about slow Saturday mornings: Duke Ellington on the sound system, artwork on the walls, big mugs of foaming coffee and food that takes a while to cook.
Not only is the food creative, it also tastes amazing.I love breakfast places that do new twists on the traditional fare, especially when authentic ingredients are used and made unique to the location. That is when the food that is memorable. The owner Frank came pulling up on his creamy blue Vespa while we were waiting and the wait was worth it. An omelette with melted gouda, linguisa sausage (with hints of Indian spices), mushrooms and thick whole grain bread and my "pizza for breakfast"--a 7 inch pie with egg and hearty sausages sliced and sprinkled with perfectly roasted Roma tomatoes and flat parsley.
As a guitar player began to strum, we embarked on the hike back to the cabin, and I had a hankering to cook something new as much as possible, enjoying the experience of communing with the food and the connection to that which sustains us.
delicious food that comes about through painstaking attention and skill. I could have sat there for hours just taking it all in...
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