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A sweet toothed overweight
hippo,
Thought to himself, 'I just don't care!
This business of being a slimmo
Is making me pull out my hair!
I'm off for a walk into town
For ice creams and cakes I shall down!'
So in suit and in tie
To Nowy Swait he did fly..
But....
Dear hippo ne'er filled up his stores......
'cause he couldn't squeeze through Blikle's doors!
(From Ewa Wende's collection: 'Fairy tales for
my grandson, Anthony.')
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| I could not resist
copying this from the back of Blikle's menu. A nice
happy little rhyme for a really first class cafe.
However as my reader will already suspect I am not
a habitué of cafes. Bars are for drinking and
restaurants are for drinking and eating. In fact what
got me to Blikle was the breakfast. Breakfast is meal
I do not normally indulge in unless it is preamble
to murdering feathered friends with the eventual idea
of turning them into diner. A good lunch and light
evening meal will normally surfice. However I was
about to enjoy the pleasures of a flight on an AT7,
which promised little gastronomic excellence, and
somebody had mentioned that Blickle's did a good breakfast.
Actually they said brunch which is an abortion of
a meal I would never own up to eating, it ruins lunch. |
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Blikle ( Nowy Swait
33. Tel:26 66 19) has a slightly confusing entrance
because there are two sides and the public areas do
not come together. I visited the left side, which
I was assured is the same as the right. It was a snowy
Sunday morning and I found a table reasonably easily
although those arriving little later, around one,
were having difficulty in getting in.
The layout is as one would expect a comfortable turn
of the century cafe. Blikle was founded in 1869 and
is now run by a Frenchman. The entrance area has a
good bar area and a display of cakes that would indeed
have made Hippo very much fatter had he been able
to get to them. |
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The menu is essentially
a cafe menu with a really good cake and confectionery
section and an alcohol section which includes good
range of cocktails. However it was for the breakfast
menu that I was there.
The menu is divided into a range of snack options,
which features caviar, herring and Blikle's home made
sausages and breakfasts. There are six different breakfasts
identified by nationality. It seems the Polish like
cold meat, the Viennese an egg in a glass, the continentals
quite rightly save themselves for lunch and the Americans,
as usual, can not make up their minds and have something
of everything. We Brits get lumbered with a skimpy
plate of bacon, egg (not eggs) and a very solid Gloucestershire
sausage. But for once in my life it is the Russians
that I am envious of, for not only do they spend the
most money (Zl.30) but they break their fast with
French champagne and caviar. There is also a section
where most of goodies in the various breakfasts are
offered individually so that those who want can have
caviar with their sausages.
Trying out a breakfast menu is more complicated than
one might think. Particularly when my delightful waitress
Anna compounded the poblems of my strange meandering
all over the menu. |
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| I started off with
blinis with herrings in sour cream, washed down by
a beer. Blinis, or pancakes to me, were nicely fresh
and warm. Next I decided that I had better try one
of the breakfasts, so I naturally ordered an English
one. I was disappointed to see that devilled kidneys
and kedgeree were nowhere to be found, but settled
for the promise of the solids as above plus toast
and marmalade. The tea, or coffee, I would pass on.
Anna returned to ask what juice I wanted. I was confused
because I did not recall any juice on the menu but
agreed to take tomato juice, with maybe a little vodka
on the side. |
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| Eventually the penny dropped - a bloody
Mary would do nicely. It was not a very good one,
a distinct lack of spice. However when my breakfast
arrived it was a Polish version. Cold meat I could
live without. So it was changed to the English version,
although it was insisted that I should eat the cheese
bun, offered to the Poles, whilst waiting for the
changed order to be cooked. In the menu it was described
as a yeast roll with cheese and it was very good. |
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I was not particularly
impressed with my English breakfast; it was not a
real fry up, and the plate looking almost naked on
the large plate with a single egg, a single sausage
and few small rashers of bacon. I used another couple
of beers to wash it down.
In the end I had to dash for my flight and paid the
bill for Zl.47 well replete and knowing that I would
have any problem in turning down the sandwich which
LOT would soon offer me. |
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| Fine Dining in:
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