Eaters Digest: Breaking Breakfast

Chicken and Waffles at Faith House of Breakfast

Break the Long Island breakfast habit. Forget that egg on a roll or bagel with a smear, and try something different for a change.

Faith House of Breakfast
143 N. Franklin St., Hempstead
516-481-0237

Praise the Lord and pass the soul food! I certainly have faith as sister Betty serves me a platter of Chicken and Waffles one late weekday morning. I can’t believe I’m finally eating this on LI. Two eggs over easy blend with the syrup I’ve poured over everything. The fried leg and thigh are crunchy, the waffles fresh from the iron. Pictures of gospel groups, MLK and the president are the only décor in this spartan dining room next to and run by Faith Baptist Church for the last four years. Next time in, I’ll try the fried whiting or salmon cakes, or maybe a bowl of grits.

Anna Bella’s Café
348 Great Neck Rd., Great Neck
516-472-0260

If you’ve spent any time in Italy, you know an Italian breakfast, not withstanding your hotel breakfast buffet, consists of cappuccino or espresso and a pastry.

At this friendly spot, where brick-oven pizzas, panini and much more are served the rest of the day, they offer something different for breakfast. Italian French Toast may sound like a mash-up, and it is. Pannetone cake replaces bread, soaked in an egg mix and finished with powdered sugar, making for a sweet morning. Uova a la Purgatorio is another unique treat: two eggs poached and floated in tomato sauce with fresh baked bread for dipping. Or try something simpler like Egg In A Hole—egg cooked in a slice of bread. Get some sweet Italian sausage on the side and that cup of cappuccino, and you’ve got something very different to start the day.

Sabor a Colombia
26 Division Ave., Levittown
516-513-1520
Most of the 10 breakfasts at this pleasant restaurant, steps from Hempstead Turnpike, feature scrambled eggs with the usual tomato and onions or ham and bacon. But Carne Asada Con Arepa Y Queso is a hearty eye-opener with a grilled thin slab of marinated top round steak and a pita-sized corn cake covered with grilled cheese. Or hold the arepa and go for rice and beans instead. Wash it down with a café con leche or one of their popular tropical fruit smoothies made from mango or more exotic fruits like soursop. More adventurous souls can try a tamale or their chicken sauté. I can only go so far in the morning.

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