Breakfast, Ears Ringing and Tastebuds Singing

The thing about living in an apartment with no kitchen to speak of, is that I get to go out to eat a lot. And when I don't go out to eat, I don't eat. Which means I am hungry more often and when I am hungry, I feel skinny, and when I feel skinny, I feel sexy and confident. Good, right?

But the other thing that happens when I get hungry is I get a headache and frequently talk about the possibility of eating arms. As in, I'm so hungry I could eat my arm. You can get those Hannibal Lecter thoughts out of your silly little head.

This is exactly the state of mind I was in on Friday morning. I was HUNGRY and on the phone with my friend Jen. We needed to find breakfast and it was already 10ish. We headed to Genies on SE Division. I had been there before, a couple of years ago and remembered it being good.

There was a serious line of people waiting, Friday being a recognized holiday for most places and the weather being what it was. We put our names on the list and decided to plop our emaciated (I use that word loosely) bodies down on the benches and order drinks while we waited. I made two comments about eating my arm and then realized that people around me might not find that as funny as I thought it was. FINE.

After about 30 minutes or so, we were seated in the extremely boisterous dining room. Not sure if it was the acoustics, but it was so loud that we could not have a conversation. I don't even recall any music playing - I think it was all excited people happy to not be at work.

The waitress was one of only two I think, running a very efficient and quick service in the dining room. She expected us to have our order ready when she first came to our table. We knew what we wanted, so it was all good. I ordered the Tasso Eggs Benedict, with Cajun ham from Chop. Jen ordered a scramble of sorts.

One thing I really like about Genies' menu is that it has this statement on the top of it - something to the effect of: We serve you the food that we would make for our own families. We hope you enjoy it. I really love that, because it's not something I necessarily would have thought, with all the bustling around and the orders being cranked out as fast as they were.

I knew my food would be good. I was excited to try the Cajun ham. And in about 10 minutes time, it was in front of me. Spicy, tender - almost, ALMOST, tender enough to cut with the side of a fork. English muffin was toasted just so and the hollandaise sauce was just enough to pull it all together. I would have been okay with more hollandaise, but then again, I'm one of those people who thinks that commercial where the guy is eating a stick of butter is delightful. Anyhow, the eggs were cooked well, even a little more than easy, but still juicy enough to blend with the sauce and make a rich, spicy, mellow bite.

The potatoes were cooked well and seasoned just right - crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside - especially when dipped in the sauce/yolk. Jen enjoyed her scramble as well and let me have a bite of their housemade sausage, which was a mouthful of subtle spice and moist-to-the-point-of-almost-falling-apart-but-not-quite meat.

We finished rather quickly and we escaped the din of the dining room as fast as we could. Genies has fast, efficient, accurate service and really delicious, homemade food, as far away from yuck as you can get. And I think everyone is so excited about it, that they talk in their outside voices. Totally understandable.