Waffles from Balthazar

A staple of brunch menus over here is the Belgian waffle with fresh fruit. It always sounds fantastic but never works for me in practice - somehow the fresh fruit just doesn't work with the waffle, as much as you would hope it would. Recently when Diana and I were in NYC we went to a brunchable cafe called Balthazar, which felt like a little piece of France transplanted in America. She had the eggs benedict, which were very good, and I decided to risk the waffles with fruit, hoping that a place like this would know how to do it.. and they did! Instead of the chopped fresh fruit you'll normally get in DC, they made a warm compote of the fruit, which went perfectly with the waffle. It was also mostly berries from what I remember - no melons or pineapple that I think clash horribly with the waffle texture. So in future, I'll look for a warm compote and never again a fresh fruit salad!