The plain, everyday fuel

Carbohydrates are not complicated. Bread, potato, fruit, batter on a griddle — ordinary breakfast things that do not need anyone to explain them further. Before a morning that involves the lakeside path, the steps up to Sarangkot, or a longer stretch of the Annapurna trail, a plate with some real carbohydrate on it gives you something to draw on as the hours go by and the walk keeps going.

That is really the whole idea, and it does not need dressing up. A full plate before a day spent on your feet is simply sensible. Carbohydrates fuel a long walk in the same plain way bread and potato do at any table — energy for the climb later, nothing more mysterious than that. What follows is a plain mapping of that idea onto what is actually sitting on our table.

Sourdough and croissants: the bread half of the plate

Our sourdough is baked fresh daily. There is something steadying about that first bite in the cool of a Lakeside morning, the kind of thing that keeps you occupied through a second coffee before you head out the door. We wrote the longer story of how it is made in our sourdough letter.

Beside it sit our croissants, baked fresh each morning — a different shape of carbohydrate but bread at heart all the same. Some mornings call for the loaf and a slow read of the lake; others call for the pastry and a quicker exit. Both sit on the menu, and neither choice is wrong before a day out.

Pancakes, waffles and hash browns

For a sweeter start, our pancakes and waffles carry their own share of carbohydrate, and they sit well before a day that has more walking in it than sitting. On the savoury side, hash browns do a similar job in a plainer way — a savoury option that does not ask you to think too hard first thing in the morning.

A few things that turn up across our carbohydrate-forward plates, whichever direction you are walking after breakfast:

  • Sourdough
  • Croissants, baked fresh each morning
  • Pancakes and waffles
  • Hash browns

Classic plates and fruit bowls

Classic breakfast plates are on the menu at Dear Breakfast, for mornings when you would rather not think too hard about what to order. If you would rather keep things lighter, a fruit bowl still carries its own carbohydrate, just in a different, quicker form — easy to eat before an early start.

Neither plate has to be heavy to do the job it is meant to do. A fruit bowl before a short lakeside walk is a fair choice; a fuller plate before the longer climb up to Sarangkot is a fair choice too. It depends on the walk ahead of you, not on any fixed rule about what breakfast ought to look like.

Before you head out

None of this is a fixed rule, and there is no single correct breakfast before a walk. Some mornings you will want the loaf and a strong coffee; other mornings, a stack of pancakes and nothing else. What matters more than the exact plate is sitting down long enough to actually eat before the day gets moving — the whole point of a slow-morning room, as we set out in the story behind the kitchen.

If you are heading further out than the lakeside path — up towards Sarangkot, or onto the Annapurna trail proper — we wrote a longer letter on that specific morning: breakfast before trekking.

Yours, every morning,
— Dear Breakfast