Molly, my eight-year-old granddaughter named for her great-grandmother, is a master egg cracker. I’m pretty sure she learned the art from her paternal grandmother. Whatever the case she has perfected it into an art.

With the professional assuredness of a Waffle House short order cook she bangs those Grade A Large suckers over the rim of the mixing bowl raising her hand high to let the
contents slip deftly into the bowl, drops the empty shell into the sink and reaches for the next one while I stand in awe of her mastery- not a bit of shell floats in the bowl.

So the fun of her visits is preparing breakfast whether it is an omelet, light scramble or the necessary ingredient for a stack of pancakes or a golden waffle. Breakfast is our best adventure and one that I can warm to more easily than ice dancing.

On a recent trip southeast of our home in what has turned out this season the be the real north of Florida we drove over to St. Augustine looking for warmer climes. While there was no respite from the chill that has invaded our state there, we discovered what a charming place St. Augustine is and also a great place for a late morning breakfast.

On a narrow cobblestone street, Aviles just off the main thoroughfare of King Street, behind a store front façade is La Herencia Café. Small with limited seating for perhaps thirty or less, Herencia is a Cuban inspired restaurant where the good smells of onions and peppers, garlic and chorizo meet omelets and Cuban sandwiches filled with traditional pork, ham, Swiss cheese and pickle mingle with Ropa Vieja (shredded brisket cooked in a sofrito of those same onions, peppers, garlic and tomatoes).

Owned by the Herreros, husband and wife, who do it all, you feel as though you are more than merely customers; you are special guests in their home. Having spent so many years in food service I can testify that the restaurant is really their home with all the hours it takes to make the place successful.

The neat thing about Cuban food is the incorporation of potatoes in their omelets and breakfast wraps. The wrap might be stuffed with chorizo, potatoes, onion, peppers and Swiss cheese while the vegetarian Spanish Omelet includes the potatoes along with other tasty additions like red peppers and mushrooms.

There is also a Tropical Omelet that has those wonderful plantains, an often overlooked firm fruit that grills up better than bananas and holds its shape while caramelizing in its own sugary juices. A great Cuban treat I like to serve alongside black beans tricked up with grilled onions, a dice of cilantro and jalapenos. A mash of yuccas is also suggested for a superb vegetarian meal.

I should add that La Herencia is one of the few reasonable dining establishments in downtown St. Augustine and what prompted us to stop. Everything else was the proverbial icing on the Tres Leches Cake!

PLANTAINS

Preparation time: About thirty minutes.

Serves four/six

Ingredients:
Two ripe or very ripe plantains
(the skin of the plantain should be spotted with brownish black)
frying oil

Tip: A friend whose late husband was Cuban suggested letting the skins of the plantains turn mostly black.

Procedure:

Fry in a deep pan over medium to medium-high heat until the pieces begin to turn crisp. It's best to fry a few pieces at a time.

Remove the pieces. Set over a firm surface and press down on each piece with a hard instrument such as a rolling pin until it becomes flattened thin and elongated.

Return to the frying pan and continue to fry until they look quite crisp. Remove excess frying oil by setting over paper towels.


You can freeze the plantain pieces before the second frying. They will last for several months in the freezer.

Enjoy!

(Charles Siskin is a former Chattanoogan now living on the Florida coast with his wife, Cookie. He can be reached at cater1@embarqmail.com)