French Toast SMACKDOWN - 2008 Otherwise known as the Great American French Toast Off (GAFTO) 2008

So it is hard to describe exactly how we got here, but through the imagination and ingenuity of some of my dearest friends, not to mention their love of french toast, competitive spirit and fanastic humor, my stomach is now very full and I have today finished one of the best adventures I've had in a while.

What is a french toast smack down you ask?? Originally named GAFTO (not to be confused with NAFTA, and yes you can still hear the "giant sucking sound" if you listen carefully), it stands for the Great American French Toast Off.

Originally conceived by my friends Jen and Deep, who have very different view of what makes a perfect piece of french toast, they thought it would be fun for a bunch of us to get together, go to brunch at their favorite french toast places and decide which was truly better.

It started off innocently enough, with a group of us nodding at brunch before the holidays, thinking that would be interesting and fun to have an excuse to try some new places. Little did any of us know what a delightful adventure it would turn into when Jen emailed us this week to invite us all to brunch on Saturday and Sunday...well at least until the trash talk started.

So as the fateful weekend approached our email boxes filled with little poems about how great their french toast was:
My toast? It's the most!
Your toast? It shouldn't boast!

Toast Smackdown!

...and then came the contest itself!

First up - Fattoush - a lovely mediterranean restaurant, that I am sure must have decent falafel, but is apparenlty known for its brunch. Nestled in Noe Valley near the corner of Church and 25th, it serves Deep's favorite cornflake french toast, the menu even boasting "the one and only."
http://www.fattoush.com/Home_Page.php

It was quite tasty and crunchy - unlike any french toast I'd ever had, and after 7 of us had scarfed down every bite of french toast that would fit inside us, I was thinking to myself how can Jen be so calm. Was it food coma? How could any french toast be better than that? What did she know that we did not know?

Well, she knew about La Note, which we all found out about on Sunday.
http://www.lanoterestaurant.com/

So with passports and visas in hand we easily gained entry into the tiny east bay enclave known as the People's Republic of Berkeley (PROB). We were greeted by a native on the train with political flyers in hand, but otherwise went unnoticed even though none of us was wearing the international shoes of PROB - the birkenstock.

After a long wait for our table, which included a coffee run to peet's, an hors d'ouevre pumpkin muffin, a Scharffen Berger chocolate bar and one hail storm, with musical accompaniment, we were finally seated.

Deep looked concerned - he'd seen plates of the tasty french toast go by - and there was doubt in our hero's eyes. I myself, knew he was in trouble as soon as I read the menu - because not only did La Note have 2 types of french toast, but one of them was brioche french toast. I tried to resist getting too cocky on Jen's behalf, but I couldn't resist. My "Deep, you're going down!" was met with Deep's squinty-faced grimace. (sorry man - but you just can't take corn flakes up against brioche! can you?)

Well, there we were, on Super Bowl Sunday, taking part in a much different competition at La Note as they ran out of cinnamon brioche french toast, one plate short at our table. No worries, we all donated one of our slices, and everyone still got MORE than enough of the delightful, sticky, soft, warm, yummy goodness, with butter and lavender honey.

While we all agreed that it was hard to compare the two - they were SO different - now I understand exactly why Jen went toe-to-toe with Deep on this one - can you say:
SMACKDOWN!

I am still chuckling at our lovely mix of high brow and WWF, and give more than an honorable mention to the cornflake french toast at Fattoush - but the clear winner of our contest is the cinnamon brioche french toast at La Note. So dig out your passports, don't forget to get a visa, strap on your birks, splash on some patchoulli and jump the bart train for some rockin' good french toast.

Stay tuned for our next gastronomic adventure: the bao down!

p.s. check out the official t-shirt of GAFTO: