This Thing Called Brunch

It all began in 1895 when Guy Beringer coined the word "Brunch" when he wrote an article Brunch: A Plea in the Hunter's Weekly magazine. It is a kind of a meal served around noon on a Sunday to eliminate the need for "Saturday-night carousers" to wake up early. Another writer, Frank Ward O'Malley from The Sun (New York newspaper, 1906) described the parameters of what can be called a brunch. It is a meal eaten between 11 am and 1 pm; anything eaten before 11am is called breakfast while any meal consumed after 1pm is lunch.

 Long before these two writers wrote about "brunch", the Chinese people have been eating a similar type of meal which they called "yum cha": drinking tea and eating dim sum dishes. And this food activity not only occurs in mid morning but in the afternoon as well, whenever tea is served. Pwede pud early morning because one time in Hong Kong, at about 3 am, I was awakened by loud noises below the condominium unit (I was in the 4th floor) --people were eating dim sum!

 During my college years, I often had only two meals in a day, brunch and dinner because of budgetary constraints. Thirty years later, your favorite food columnist requires only two meals a day, breakfast and dinner because of diminished need for energy sustenance.

 Today, we have a significant segment of the population working in the Business Process Outsourcing or better known as the call canter industry. The Philippines, with 350,000 call center agents is now no.1 in the world (India has 330,000). Because of the nature of their work with night shifts, many either eat an early breakfast at about 6 a.m. and sleep later, or go home to sleep and eat brunch later.

 The Gustavian Restaurants (Ayala, Stall F103 Level 1, The Terraces Ayala Center, phone 5141979 and Banilad, #1 Paseo Saturnino Ma. Luisa Road, phone 3447653) are now the destinations for this thing called brunch. From 10 am to 12 noon, a special menu, budget friendly and delicious dishes were created by Chef Bee Luciano to cater to this demand. Chef Bee also made sure these are also available as afternoon snacks from 2 pm to 5 pm.

 Mrs. Amparito Lhuillier invited the Press, Media, Sponsors, Food Writers and Bloggers to sample the following: Cheddar Cheese and Mango Chutney Doorstep, Ham-Asparagus and Cheese Strata, Salmon Cakes with Lemon Aoili and the Gustavian Ultimate Quiche. Specials drinks, freshly brewed, included Watermelon Lemonade and Honey Rosemary Lemonade. Desserts were also available like the Belgian Waffle for the Gods, Lemon Curd Cheese Cake and those lovely French Macaroons.

 If brunch was to be made part of my vocabulary, I would select Ham-Asparagus and Cheese Strata with a drink of Honey Rosemary Lemonade to start my day.