Conscious Choice: Breakfast Shouldn’t Break the Bank

June 2006 | Choice Feedback

Breakfast Shouldn’t Break the Bank

After reading the article in Conscious Choice (April) about the new restaurant Terragusto, I couldn’t wait to try the place out.

I came in for brunch on a Saturday morning, only to find out that simple egg dishes were not offered, only the brunch menu. Since the “first course” offerings were $8, which is about what I might spend on a breakfast out, I ordered one of the vegetarian-friendly items, the “breakfast soup.”

Imagine my surprise when my $8 bought a small bowl of oatmeal with milk, blueberries and a touch of honey. When I asked the waitperson how this “soup” was different from a bowl of oatmeal, she told me the oatmeal was steel-cut and the milk was a blend of two different brands of organic milk.

I was unconvinced, my intelligence insulted, but still hungry, so I decided to order toast. I figured I was already into them for $8 plus at least $2 for the coffee, I figured I might as well spend another seven and change my order to the French toast (an $11 second course, but for $17 I could have the first course, a second course and my coffee — what a bargain!). The French toast was quite nice, served with real maple syrup and some very nice, presumably organic, butter.

I cannot imagine that most readers of Conscious Choice are CEOs of oil companies or wealthy Republican politicians, so perhaps $17 plus tax and tip might be a little much of a stretch for a bowl of oatmeal and three half-slices of thick French toast plus coffee for most of your readers (including this one), no matter how sustainably the organic food may have been produced.

— Patrick D. Elliot, Chicago

Whole Brain Adviser

I loved May’s Whole Brain Adviser column. Snappy, fun, pointed answers to common feelings and challenges. Wonderful! Thank you for this column!

— Toby W., Internet

Canada’s Commercial Seal Hunt

You may be aware that several governments (most notably the U.S., UK, and Italian) have raised objections to Canada’s commercial seal hunt, and last year the Danish government outlawed the trade in seal products following the broadcast of footage from the 2005 hunt.

The Canadian seafood boycott was launched as a result of the continuation of the seal hunt. In April 2005, one month after the hunt, 1,700 rotting seal corpses were found washed up on the shores of Port-aux-choix, Newfoundland. The organization Sea Shepherd believes these corpses represented a proportion of the seals “struck and lost” during the hunt.

An independent veterinary report concluded that the commercial seal hunt resulted in considerable and unacceptable suffering. From its examination of seal skulls, it found insufficient cranial damage at time of death, concluding that an estimated 40 percent of seals were skinned while still conscious.

The SSCS (Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) has successfully found an economic alternative to the seal slaughter. Seal fur brushed off molting juveniles is highly-prized in Europe where it is used as filler for bed comforters and sleeping bags. SSCS was granted a permit from the Canadian government to brush as many as 8,000 young seals. Brushing 30 seals produces a kilogram of fine fur.

— Alison Fitzgerald, Internet

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