Breakfast at the Waffle House in Washington, D.C.

We slept like a baby the first night in Washington DC. We had no idea how tired we really were. We were well rested ... well ... except that Suanne woke up with a stiff neck. The pillows she selected at the hotel were too soft for her.

We had a real early start. That second day in DC is what we call the “museum day”. Our plan is to cover the places and sights along the National Mall east of the Washington Monument. We planned on also visiting the White House.

While trying to get our bearing outside the hotel, a tourism ambassador of sort approached us asking if we needed help. I was really impressed even though Suanne and I looked every part a lost tourist. We said we just wanted to find a place for breakfast and she promptly said that we should head to a place called The Waffle House just across from Ford’s Theatre, the place where Abraham Lincoln was shot. Sounds like a great idea.

The Waffle House, located on 522 10th St NW, is just a short walk from our hotel. It was quite an interesting place to say the least. There is a newspaper clipping from The Washington Post pasted outside the window that says:

Legend has it that Mr Lincoln really wanted to dine here that bad night, but the missus refused to sit on stools that swivel, so they went to the theater across the street instead ...

I thought it was kind of funny. Actually the article did not say which “Mr Lincoln” and everyone just assumed that it was Abe they were referring to.

Their breakfast special was quite interesting. This is exactly the kind of place we wanted for breakfast ... wow, scrapple! That is until we went in ... and was kind of disappointed that it’s not exactly a waffle place but looks like they are owned by Chinese.

They do serve both American style home cook food and also Chinese American food.

we had coffee and hot chocolate. They came is small cups, much smaller than I am used to. It was alright ... nothing to shout about.

Since this place is called The Waffle House, we ordered a waffle. There is nothing special about this anyway. It’s just waffle.

Have you guys heard of Scrapple before? I had not. I ordered that simply because it is something I had never heard of before. Apparently this is a regional food native to this part of the world. I bet no one in the west coast knows what a Scrapple is.

Scrapple sounds good but the description is nasty. It is basically sausage with pork scraps like liver, head, heart and what nots! Yup, the parts of meat leftover from butchering. Well, they take these and mush it into a loaf.

How was it? It looked nasty and it tasted nasty. Maybe if they did not describe it that way, I might have thought it was good. Suanne refuse to try a bite of it. Sorry guys, we were from Canada.

[hmmm ... on second thoughts, I should not have said it's nasty because Chinese dig this kind of food too!]

Suanne stuck with a normal breakfast and opted for the Grilled Chicken, 2 Eggs and Home Fries. It was great and filling. We wanted to have a big breakfast and just snack through lunch and so this is just perfect.

We love especially the Homestyle Fries. I had never seen fries made this way before but they are like hash browns. They made it crispy.

Suanne’s breakfast came with toasts too.

It was fun eating here. The owner is very chatty and funny. Knowing that we’re tourists he asked us a lot questions and we had a great time. Oh, this is not a tourist joint ... far from it. We see almost all their customers are locals which makes it kind of ideal for us.

Total came up to $21 including tips. Oh yeah ... we were mindful that here in the US, they tip 15% ... not 10% like we do in Canada. LOL!

Read more of Ben and Suanne’s food and travel adventures on their Chow Times blog.

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