Cora’s, the ever-popular, ever-expanding breakfast chain, is known for piling its plates with fresh fruit.
A jumble of juicy cantaloupe, hunks of strawberry, spears of apple and pieces of jewel-like kiwi comes with almost every menu item. Cora has even taken to showing off a plate of her fruit-laden wares on one of the billboards that line the Gardiner Expressway.
For registered dietitian Shannon Crocker, it’s refreshing to see fruit take the spotlight at a restaurant where diners endure snaking lineups for their weekend breakfast treat.
It’s a real positive, to get all that great fresh fruit,” says Crocker, who estimates that diners get about three servings of fruit with this particular dish.
Usually, a breakfast joint just gives you a slice of orange alongside your greasy eggs.
We tested Cora’s “1990s Harvest” since it’s the first item featured when you turn the cover on the menu. And because the decadent brioche-made French toast is one of Cora’s most popular items. It comes with an impressive side of fruit.
Unfortunately, that mound of fruit — something most Canadians don’t eat enough of every day — doesn’t eclipse the mound of calories that come on the other side of the plate.
Like most restaurants, it seems Cora’s has fallen into the North American trap of offering an overabundance of food. With two pieces of thick French toast, an egg, bacon and fruit, this dish is like a buffet on a platter. The breakfast clocks in at 1,320 calories — and that doesn’t include a pat of butter (“Do not put it on. It doesn’t need it!” says Crocker), some glugs of syrup, a coffee or cup of juice.
The amount of food here makes this a breakfast, a morning snack and a lunch combined,” Crocker says, noting 1,300 calories is about half of what the average man needs in a single day. “It’s just far too much food.
As always, Crocker advises people who want to savour a scrumptious breakfast to split it with a friend or save the other piece of French toast for another meal. Especially since this particular French toast is made with a sweet bread that tastes more like a Danish than brioche.
And since most of us should cut back on our daily sodium intake, Crocker also suggests forgoing some — even (gasp!) all — of the bacon. The 880 mg of sodium in this breakfast is about half of what your body needs in a day.
If you just skip the bacon, you can cut out most of the sodium,” she says. “One slice could have 150 mg to 200 mg of sodium. You can cut out 500 mg of sodium if you just skip the bacon. And you don’t need to substitute anything. You don’t need this much food!
The breakfast’s 46 grams of fat is at the low range of what the average woman should have in an entire day. So diners who indulge should eat a lean lunch and dinner.
And maybe choose veggie sticks over a banana for an afternoon snack. As its name suggests, this breakfast definitely provides an abundant harvest of fruit.
VERDICT: A breakfast, a snack and a lunch combined.
