melrose and morgan, primrose hill

granola and bircher muesli, melrose and morgan

it’s ten am on a saturday morning. p and i are meeting for breakfast at melrose and morgan in primrose hill. i’ve been meaning to try this grocery shop-cum-kitchen for a while now and was actually really glad when p picked it over made in camden. i had fully intended to practice yoga that afternoon so wanted something lighter than a full-scale brunch. but my plans to practice got scuppered because the sun came out and we walked through ‘uniqlo square’. a coffee at sandwich and spoon turned into a long chat and then richard dare’s cook and kitchenware shop and mary’s living and giving shop waylaid us.

mary's living & giving shop

melrose and morgan has a tinted glass exterior that gives you somewhat of an idea of the groceries inside. a long table flanks the length of the shop. in the morning mostly sweet things dominate the display – meringues large and puffed like shirts with shoulder pads, a carrot cake thick with frosting and scattered with walnuts sits on a white cake stand and hot cross buns anointed with egg wash glisten lightly. i like that the crumble-topped muffins are cased in cut up grease paper rather than ready made cases.

melrose and morgan

meringues

carrot cake

p likes savoury pastry like things and so picked a sausage roll. i cannot resist a good granola and the one at melrose and morgan looked really good. it was nutty brown punctuated with whole almonds, seeds and sour cherries. i picked cold milk over yoghurt as i want to see how crisp the granola was. the milk turned pale amber as the granola lost its honeyed sweetness to it, but the oats remained resiliently crisp. i loved the honey caramel coat on the toasted almonds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. the sour cherries were just the right balance of tartness against all the sweetened crunchy elements of the granola. if you like granola, this is one to add to your list of loved ones.

our breakfast turned out to be rather leisurely and we reluctantly vacated our seats by the window as we saw a father and son standing and eating. it was only fair though as we had been there for almost two hours. conversation was thick and fast and covered everything from women, the politics of equality in relationships, work place strife and the idiosyncrasies of the food blogging world. p and i have met our fair share of food bloggers for whom food blogging is about becoming so visible on the restaurant and bar circuit that they get invited to every opening. for the both of us, it is the food and the people we share it with that are more important. wander over to p’s writing at a table for one and you’ll see what i mean.