Flapjacks: One Heart Attack Per Day

You know when they say that you’re getting old when your body clock wakes you up early in the morning?  Well, consider me getting old.  It doesn’t really matter how late I sleep the night before or how tired I am, I don’t even need to wait for my alarm to play The Beatles’ “Good Day Sunshine.”  I’m basically up before 7:30.  So breakfast has now become a staple of my mornings, as opposed to my college days.

So naturally, I haven’t really been inclined to eat breakfast for quite some time.  And during the times when I did, let’s just say it’s nothing to look forward to.  Plain oatmeal for the past 20 years.  I’d say “yuck,” but the only readers here might just be my family¹.  My version of a luxury breakfast consists of 2 pancakes and a sausage from McDonald’s or the good ol’ Sausage McMuffin from… McDonald’s!  No drink because I’m too cheap.  So when my sister invited us to breakfast over at Flapjacks, it didn’t take long for me to say yes… Apparently, there was a hidden agenda behind this.

She had just finished her driving lessons and she wanted to test it out the skills on the family drive since it was the long weekend, there were (supposedly) no cars in Metro Manila, and I’d “be there” to guide her.  You should know that she hasn’t even gotten off her student’s license yet so there was really only one logical (and most of you should empathize withe me here) reaction.  I basically told her that I’d want to drive the ride back home because I can only survive one heart attack in a day.  Of course, I got overruled.

First order of the day: Brewed Coffee for my mom.  The coffee’s apparently good, but I couldn’t tell the difference.  But a little dent here is the cup wasn’t clean, like someone-drank-using-that-cup-and-they-didn’t-wash-the-cup clean. They did change the cup, but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

My sister got a Hot Chocolate.   Let’s just say for 95 bucks, I’d take my chances with the instant/powdered/preserved/whatever version of the hot chocolate in McDonald’s.

My drink was the Ginger Lemonade.  Made with mint ginger, fresh lemon, and Sprite, I don’t think they used fresh lemon here.  I could definitely taste the Sprite over the overpowering ginger flavor, which is always a plus.  This is the first and likely the last time I’m ordering this drink.

I went for the Pancake Platter, which came with two eggs, a sausage (or bacon), two buttermilk pancakes.  Eating McDo pancakes left and right can never make me a great pancake evaluator, but Flapjacks’ version is pretty good.  Fluffy, soft, and loads of butter.  Did I just say I could only survive one heart attack?

The sausage was just OK.  I’m a sucker for McDo sausages² and I’d take them any day of the week.  When I said that the casing was tough over at Earle’s Deli, let me take that back now.  At least you could chew through them!  Covering the sausage with butter does make it better.

My sister got her waffle fix with a Fancy Waffle, which is your single waffle with your choice of fruit as topping.  She chose blueberries.  Pretty good.  These are your American waffle variety, as opposed to the Liege or the Brussels³.  If there is a next visit⁴, I’d get a waffle instead.

Overall, not bad but pretty expensive for breakfast… especially for a non-breakfast guy like me.  Service was so-so for an early weekday holiday morning.  If you put it in context, they had like 10 tables with only 2 people serving the whole place.  Give the guys a raise because they were quite awesome considering what they had to work with.  I’m still not sure if I’ll be back anytime soon, but I’m definitely driving through McDonald’s fairly soon.  OK, I’d been planning to do so tomorrow morning.

Flapjacks: One Heart Attack Per Day 2011-09-09

ou know when they say that you’re getting old when your body clock wakes you up early in the morning?  Well, consider me getting old.  It doesn’t really matter how late I sleep the night before or how tired I am, I don’t even need to wait for my alarm to play The Beatles’ “Good …