Breakfast of Champions

Every morning we go down to the Basilico Restaurant for our breakfast. Vietnam is big into fresh juices, from watermelon to mango. I have never been an orange juice drinker but I have been here. I drink a full glass every morning. Maybe because it's freshly squeezed. Or maybe because the baby loves it.

There are 5 choices of what to have, but 90% of the time, Eric chooses Phở (beef noodle soup), Vietnam's staple dish. He explained that he chooses pho so often here because he never gets to eat it in the States because of all the MSG U.S. restaurants use (he gets headaches about 30 seconds after his first sip of pho at home). Here, it's all fresh ingredients. No MSG. I love how big the bowl has to be.

Pearce often chooses eggs, but only because he likes to dip his toast in the yoke. Only until recently were we able to convince him that the rest of the egg also has value. We used the argument that boxers, and of course super heroes, eat tons of eggs because they build muscle so quickly. Predictably, after he eats his eggs now, he rolls his sleeve up and stares at his bicep for several minutes. Then he gets out of his chair and jumps a few times to make sure his vertical increased. He pretty much attributes all new feats of strength to the egg.

I am always preaching good communication to Pearce. I tell him the more exact in what you ask for, the better your chance of getting what you want. So he took it to heart and orders his breakfast everyday like this:

Pearce: "I would like milk in a glass with a straw, cereal with raisins in a bowl, honey for my cereal, milk for the cereal, toast with jam, strawberry yogurt in a bowl. And a spoon".

If we, including any of the servers, laugh during his very explicit instructions, he becomes hurtfully angry, and insists to us that "it's not funny. I'm being serious." Now we all have to try our hardest to keep a straight face.