a fraiche experience

last sunday, ryan and i brought nicholas and brittany for brunch/lunch at fraiche in evanston. never been there and have never heard of it until one of the colleagues at work discussed about brunch places. he said he particularly enjoy the scones and coffee there. so i was extremely interested in trying the place out.

i was also told that the place could potentially be packed with northwestern students who sits around with a cup of coffee and their laptops, doing their work. so we called in to make sure it wasn't too busy. when we got there, we can see that the place is petite and is brightly lit from the sun light streaming through the full length windows. unfortunately for us, the 15 minutes it took us to get ready and get to the place meant no tables ready for us. as we were waiting for a table for four to be ready, my eyes went straight to their food display table filled with tons of yummy looking cupcakes. so tempting!

when we finally got seated, we checked out their menu displayed on a chalk board on one of the walls. i was trying to decide between the frittata or the quiche. speaking of frittatas, for some odd reason i thought it was basically an italian quiche but with herbs and cheese. i was half right. frittata is almost like a quiche without the crust or close to scrambled eggs with cheese, meat or vegetables. the quiche they served that day was goat cheese, caramalized onions and thyme - which sounds extemely yummy.

to order food, we'd have to go up to the counter to order and pay for the food. it's essentially a self service place where we would also have to put away our plate or sometimes they would come by and pick up the plates from the table.

i went up to ask them what their frittata du jour (frittata of the day) was and it was mushroom, brie and caramelized onions. it was then decided that frittata($7.50) was the winner! i mean c'mon, mushroom and caramelized onions? the dish also comes with a serving of herb roasted potatoes which was seasoned well (but was hoping for it to be crunchier) and a slice of toast (sourdough or wheat) with butter and jelly.

since in my head, i had the idea that frittata = italian quiche, i was surprised when the dish came. i even had nicholas check what the meaning of fritta is on his iphone. lol. but once it was settled what it was, i thought the dish tasted okay. i kinda wished they had a bite of saltiness in the dish like bacon pieces or something. which i stole some from ryan's side order of apple wood smoked bacon...hehe. and maybe a also stronger flavored cheese instead of brie cos even though i can see the brie slice, i couldn't taste it distinctly. overall i thought the dish was okay.

ryan actually ordered two eggs ($5.50) done his favorite style which was sunny side up. it also came with the potatoes and slice of toast and he ordered extra side of bacon ($3) because he wanted to compare it to the apple wood smoked bacon from the ones we had at eve several weeks ago. bacon was crunchy and yummy (needless to say) but we couldn't taste the apple wood smoked flavor. one of the eggs was cooked a lil longer than he liked so the yolk wasn't runny.

we actually loved the toast. the butter was quite the pleasant surprise. it had orange zest running through the butter, giving it a citrus-y flavor with the toast. and the strawberry jelly that came with was excellent.

nicholas ordered the almond crusted brioche french toast with fruit salad and maple syrup ($6.50). he raved about the french toast. what he loved about it was that it wasn't soggy in the middle, just had enough sweetness that he likes and loved the crunch of the toasted sliced almonds. i tried a small bite and i agreed with him.  (p.s. i really love that cute lil container for the maple syrup)

brittany had a breakfast pizza which included bacon, eggs and cheese on a pizza crust. both her and nicholas said that it was tasty and very much enjoyed their dish choices.

oh btw, the food took a bit to be served (about 15-20 minutes) but my guess is that the pizza took a while to be cooked and they wanted to serve all four dishes at the same time so we could all have brunch together while our food was still warm.

i thought fraiche was okay overall. i would probably try their quiche and also their yummy looking cupcakes the next time i go there. i didn't get cupcakes this time although it was very tempting cos i am sorta on a semi-diet. lol. oh, did i tell you i was able to zip up a pair of jeans i had trouble buttoning up like a few weeks ago? i am uber happy about it that i had to share it with you guys :)

anywho, i napped the rest of the afternoon - which felt so fabulous and then cooked some pretty good dinner. :) this were the two dishes that i cooked to serve with rice: sambal shrimp and asparagus with strips of fish cake in oyster sauce. don't they look good? mmmm...yummeh!

 

disclaimer this is written based on my personal experience and opinion. experiences and taste buds may vary for others.