The Great Dublin Brunch Love In – This Is Why I’m Done Pigging Out

niallharbison

The brunch revolution in Dublin over the last few years has been glorious to watch. Never before has a city embraced a trend with such gusto.

The main reason for this is probably that, even though we’d been doing it for decades, it was now socially acceptable to drink early at the weekends. You’d have been subjected to judgmental looks if you had a beer at 10am in the past, but by simply mixing a bit of fruit juice and some salt on the rim of a fancy glass we can all now get away with swigging tequila half an hour after waking up. Nobody bats an eyelid and no Instagram profile is complete without you and the squad looking shifted at brunch. #rollover

The food is no different either. The more pork/sugar/melted chocolate/deep-fried anything/burgers on the menu the better. Why have regular toast when you can make it four inches thick, deep-fry it, cover it in Coco Pops, lash icing sugar on it, and then drown it in maple syrup and butter?

I can’t even. pic.twitter.com/ldVhxsptrB

— ???????????????? ???????????? (@NickCho) October 10, 2016

Brunch in Dublin has been all about excess. More more more. The bigger and dirtier the dish the better, with restaurants trying to outdo themselves and customers bragging on social media, Donald Trump-style, about the size of their sausages.

Just like with property in the Celtic Tiger years, I think we’ve gone too far. It’s time for a bit of a brunch austerity. A haircut on the excess. We don’t have to go cold turkey on it and eliminate brunch forever, but a bit of downsizing is called for.

You already see this in cities like London and New York, who had brunch madness way before it reached our shores. Less is now more. Why eat a half kilo of pig and four litres of bottomless champagne when you can have simple avocado and eggs on toast with a really good coffee?

I’ll await the backlash in the comments where I fully expect to be called everything from a party pooper to the Devil incarnate, because I know how passionate people are about their brunches. So am I. It’s the best meal of the week, but after eating it non-stop week after week, I just think we’ve got carried away with ourselves. We never have been good at managing too much of a good thing.

If you’re looking for me this weekend, I’ll be having a nice boiled egg and toast with a cup of tea.

Back to basics.