The Best Of A Good Brunch

Put down your wellies–the countryside weekend has been abandoned in favour of urban brunch plans. Debora Robertson investigates what the meal has done to our weekend and how to host your own in style

- Debora Robertson

I LIVE in a corner of London with a large Turkish community. When we first moved in—20 years ago—I loved to sit in one of the many cafes that line the busy main street, at the weekend— sipping strong black tea and breakfasting on menemen, a scrabble of eggs, tomatoes and green peppers, or on the popular breakfast picnic of cheese, olives, tomatoes and cucumber, bread and honey, boiled egg and spicy sausage. Simply by stepping out of my front door, I felt as if I was on holiday. Slowly, over the past decade or so, even with my head buried in the newspaper, I noticed a shift. My breakfast companions got younger, cooler. The hipsters were here and they were doing brunch.