Brunch? Yes Please! (Sunshine Cafe, Rossland)

Hola Bloggies:

I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend! It’s been very hot in my AC-less corner of the world. But rather than complain about the heat I embraced it instead. I spent a good chunk of my Saturday doing physical activities that worked up a sweat – Zumba + watering my co-workers lard yard and garden + detailing my car. Well done me!

Sunshine Cafe, Rossland

Once in a long while I like to indulge in a leisurely weekend brunch. And when I do, one of my favourite dishes is French Toast! Yum!

If you and I have ever talked about French Toast you’ve surely heard me say that challah bread makes the best ones (with brioche following in a close second place). I may have to re-visit that list to add a close third place for sourdough bread.

Recently, I found myself in Rossland, British Columbia for work. It wasn’t a completely uneventful trip – I was there to attend court and realized late at night in the middle of the mountains that I had completely forgotten work shoes!!!

The only shoes I had were my running shoes (I was planning for an early morning run) and a summery pair of pink flowered flip-flops. I was horrified at the thought of having to wear either to court. Problem was that there was only one shoe store in the whole town and it didn’t open until after I was set to start my trial. Uh oh.

The morning of court I woke up super early and decided to scrap my early morning run in the hopes of resolving my shoe crisis. At first I considered driving to a bigger city to buy a suitable pair of shoes but that wouldn’t work. I would never make it back in time. So the hotel tried calling the owner of the shoe store to get her to open her store early. Unfortunately they couldn’t find her number so that didn’t work either. Eventually,they loaned me a pair of mules from their lost and found. I was ever so grateful for the shoes even if they did show an awful lot of my toes.

The mules weren’t perfect but I decided to head to court. I pulled up, parked my car, and started to approach the front door. And that’s when I noticed a camera crew there to cover another trial. The last thing I needed was camera footage of my woefully inappropriate shoes. So I ran back to my car and kept scouring the town. And that’s when I found the thrift store. They were closed but I knocked on the door and begged the little old lady to let me in early. She obliged and I headed to their shoe section where I managed to score a fairly cute pair of work appropriate shoes for the bargain price of $2! Crisis solved!!!

Given my shoe crisis I didn’t get a chance to have a proper breakfast, which made for one mungry (mad+hungry) Karen come lunch-time. Rossland is a pretty small place with a limited number of lunch options. So I walked into the first place I saw – Sunshine Cafe.

The postage sized Sunshine Cafe turned out to be an absolute and unexpected gem! Somehow, in the middle of a small mountain town I had found a cafe specializing in gluten-free meals and baking. Even though it looked small and relatively new it had been around for over 50 years. After eating my meal I could totally see how it had lasted for so long!

There were so many delicious options on their menu it made choosing my meal very hard indeed. Eventually I settled on a build your own breakfast featuring two poached eggs, French Toast with strawberries and bananas, and a ham steak. I think my hunger got away with me on that one! lol

 

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see such a gorgeous plate! The eggs were perfectly cooked, the ham was delicious, and the French Toast . . . amazing!!

They may not have been made out of challah. They weren’t even made out of brioche. But the sourdough came through in a pinch. Noted.

I guess it just goes to show you – never underestimate a restaurant by it’s small-town location. Oh, and never ever forget to pack work appropriate shoes on a business trip!

 

Question: What is your favourite brunch dish?