Breakfast at Zingerman’s

Jane and I were on a panel at Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown Bookfest over the weekend discussing food with Ari Weinzweig, co-founder, with Paul Saginaw, of Zingerman’s Deli and, more recently, Zingerman’s Roadhouse, which now serves breakfast. Ari’s newly-published book is Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon, and bacon, along with superb sausage, was prominent in the menu degustation brought out that morning by Ari and his chef, Alex Young. Rather than yammer on about what we ate, here are pictures of the Breakfast of the Century.

First, biscuits with chocolate gravy and bacon, which Ari said is actually an old Appalachian recipe:

Then, biscuits dolloped with sorghum mixed with butter:

And, while on the subject of bread, an excellent, hand-rolled bagel and cream cheese that really tasted like cheese, not xantham gum:

Bread is Ari’s passion, and his rye glorious. There is none better anywhere: glossy-crusted, dense, chewy,slightly sour and shot through with caraway seeds. New York’s delis with their blah, soulless rye, should be ashamed of themselves!

Eggs Benedict with prosciutto, anyone?

How about eggs Benedict topped with hunks of Chesapeake Bay crab?

Or, good old corned beef hash:

Maybe oyster hash, the eggs poached in oyster liquor:

Here are some hot donuts, dense and cakey and yet so fragile that they quite literally fall apart when you heft one:

Finally, what could be simpler than bacon and eggs and grits; and what could be better when the bacon is thick and smoky, the eggs fresh from free-range chickens, and the grits, from Anson Mills, butter-rich?

By the way, for lunch, we went to Zingerman’s Deli and had Jalapeno peaches:

And also some “farmer’s hash,” made with sweet potatoes and redskins, sauteed spinach, crisp shallots and piquillo peppers. Alongside it comes some of that fine rye, toasted and buttered: