Brunch at Fig in Santa Monica

Had received an email from daughter Celine, who lives in Amsterdam, telling me she had prepared a sumptuous brunch with hash browns, pancakes, and more! So when I walked into FIG, in Santa Monica, to meet friends fro brunch, I knew exactly what I was going to order!
The restaurant, which has excellent reviews in the LA press and travel forums, is in the Miramar Hotel (the exact address is 101 Wilshire) and it is worth a visit for any meal you may want to have!The setting is casual, and there are big sliding doors that open over the hotel swimming pool, adding a light note to the atmosphere. The breakfast menu is tempting with a choice of set breakfast, bakery items, and more. We went straight to the "specialities" section. My friends ordered Hash browns, and "Pain perdu", and I ordered .. well, you know, pancakes.

When the hash browns arrived I almost regretted my choice! Small potatoes with theirs skins, mushrooms, tomatoes, diced chorizo, all sauteed, and two poached eggs on top! Oh, my, breakfast, lunch, and dinner all at once!

My pancakes came with a coulis of fruit, sliced almonds, and maple syrup. They were perfect, a little bit moist and golden on both sides. There were four of them and I could not finish them!

Pain Perdu means "lost bread" in French, and was made using old dry bread, and passing it in a beaten egg. The American version is called "French Toast" and I have seen it made with white sliced bread. Pain perdu has been revisited, and is now made with a slice of brioche, which was the option taken by Fig. The presentation was beautiful, with red and blue berries and maple syrup on the side.

As you can see, the three of us were very very happy!

Traditional Pain perdu recipe
Ingredients
Bread left overs cut in thick 1/2 inch slices
2 cups of whole milk
1 vanilla bean cut in two alongside
1/2 cup sugar + 1 tsp
2 eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
Steps
Boil the milk with the sugar and the vanilla bean. Set aside until it is cool.
Add the dry bread and let soak 4 or 5 minutes, remove and drain.
Heat the butter in a pan.
Beat the eggs with 1 tsp of sugar
One by one, put the soften bread slices in the beaten egg and place carefully in the pan with the butter. Leave until golden, then turn and let cook on the other side.
Traditionally pain perdu was served plain or with powdered sugar.