The Celebratory Breakfast - Whew!

The Celebratory Breakfast – Whew!

We had friends round to watch the final of the Rugby World Cup so the alarm was set for 4.40am. I didn’t think I could stumble out of bed at 4.58am and wander into the lounge in a state of semi undress with guests present, so I wore my lucky All Blacks jersey - the one I wore to the 2011 final. To date this has a 100% strike rate – after today I’ll be wearing it for a while…..

 

 

The tension was high. The tries either side of half time made it feel comfortable before the Aussies put us back on the edges of our seats by coming back from 21-3 down to 21-17. However, as the second half drew to a close, we shut them out, and with a late try to Beauden Barrett the score was 34-17 at the final whistle. There was unrestrained joy in the room.

One of our guests was texting her daughter who was in rehearsals for a theatre production in Pittsburgh, USA. She had half her mind on the production, and half on her NZ heritage.

 

 

 

Soon after the final whistle, I started on the cooking a breakfast of champions. We had black pudding, chorizo criollo and bacon from Park Ave Quality Meats, chicken lemon and sage sausages from Cameron Harrison, hash browns and eggs. For those wanting a cold breakfast there was bircher muesli and yoghurt. Most people washed this down with champagne and orange juice, or a plain juice.

The black pudding, an old English recipe, won a bronze medal at the recent Devro NZ Sausage Awards. It is a mixed texture pudding, very large chunks and finer parts within the casing. It has a soft texture in the mouth - the flavours are pleasant and quite mild. Our daughter is at home for the weekend - she wanted to know if she could take some leftover black pudding back to her flat. Although not everybody sampled it, those who did really enjoyed the taste and flavours.

 

 

The chicken sausage has elements of lemon and sage complementing the chicken. One guest was especially effusive about this snarler. Lemon is not a flavour I particularly like, however this is a quality chicken sausage that will appeal to those who like some lemon tartness to accentuate the chicken.

The guests all enjoyed my favourite sausage, the chorizo criollo. These are always good.

The mood of the breakfast was joyful as we talked over the match, and wondered where to from here? Both my wife and I and another couple mused about the possibility of a trip to Japan in four years’ time…. Somehow I think sausages probably won’t be on the menu for breakfast if we are there.

Cost: Chicken lemon and sage - $21.99kg.

Black Pudding - $16.99 for a tube.