Nudy's Cafe & irresistible choc-chip pecan pancakes

It has been decided (between myself and my dearest friend) that the best breakfast combination is between an irresistible short stack of chocolate chip pancakes and incredible heaping of fresh slices of bananas. However, our favorite morning-time hang has become uninterested in pleasing our early day urges, so I’ve set out to find another sweet spot who excels at creating this perfect pairing.

A recent visit to Nudy’s Café on Bridge Street (there’s four locations, I believe this one is by far the best) with my plus one has left me giddy to quickly grab my girl pal for an early morning chowdown. Although the menu did not support my addiction to the ‘nana-chip stack, the waitress did recommend the choco-chip and pecan cakes that were sweetly sprinkled with powdered sugar and flawlessly flipped to perfection, shown below.



My plus one, without hesitation, ordered the café’s crab benedict, shown below, which arrived beautifully plated and impressively light and fluffy.


While my morning-munching experience rarely highlights anything besides fatty pastries and feta omelets, a bite into the seafood salad-and-egg layering left me flabbergasted. For me, it takes a specific touch and taste to capture the correct outcome in a mayo salad and Nudy's did just that for their crab concoction. Sided with nothing out of the ordinary -- home fries and asparagus -- the dish could surely stand solo.

I won't deny my love for chocolate-anything, but for future top-of-the-morning munchies, crab benny is now becoming a forerunner.

classic coffee mugs

If you want to win over my heart, buy me a mug.

And, if you are actually going to go about this, make it one that can handle some serious ounces of liquid caffeine. Coming from a lady whose mornings consist of over five refills, I cherish my mug collection and must admit I am partial to handmade pottery.

Recently, while attending Art Star's Craft Bazaar at Philadelphia's Penn's Landing, I couldn't resist Pink Kiss Ceramic's vintage-styled sipper. The adorable creation of Baltimore-based artist Shawna Pincus-Bracco, shown above, is undeniably my new favorite mug due to its perfected stenciling (her hubby conveniently runs his own business, Spaghetti Kiss, a screenprinted apparel line) and appropriate sculpting.

Pincus-Bracco, a girl with tons of talent in my book, writes this of her mug-love: "There is nothing more satisfying then drinking from a cup that was made by human hands. I have people tell me that they will wash their favorite mug after every use just so that it's clean for the next time, even though they have a cabinet full of clean commercially made dishes."

That's me!