Is this the world's best easy breakfast?

In my world as presently constituted, it is.

"Presently constituted" means I just made a power run through the vast Phoenicia Specialty Foods market on Westheimer, where I acquired all four of the necessary ingredients. (And much, much more, but that's another post.)

First step: Grab a bowl and scoop in a blob of Phoenicia's satiny housemade labne—a thickened yogurt "cheese" made by straining off additional whey. Bonus points if it's a bowl you enjoy looking at.

Second step: spoon on some pitted sour cherry preserves with some of their syrup. Phoenicia sells several varieties; don't buy a more solid sour cherry jam by mistake. I like the Armenian Noyan brand sour cherries in a thinnish syrup. (Phoenicia stocks a Persian brand, Majlesi, that sources its preserved sour cherries from Pakistan, but the syrup is too thick and sweet for me.)

Third step: pile on some crushed walnuts. No, not the pecans in your cupboard. You want that tannic walnut edge in this dish. Just make sure any walnuts you have on hand haven't gone rancid, which they can do all too easily. Phoenicia moves lots of walnuts from their vast nuts and seeds selection, so their walnuts are liable to be pretty fresh.

(My paranoid buying tip: always taste a walnut once you load your groceries into the car. You can always run back in for a refund if they are not in great shape. Works for any unshelled nuts.)

Fourth step: chop up a few fresh mint leaves from the big bunch you bought from Phoenicia's produce section—or from the potted mint outside your kitchen door—and strew them on top of the labne sundae.

Done. That took what, four minutes, max?

The simple dish before you is alive with not-so-simple contrasts: the tart, cool thrill of the labne; the just-sweet-enough pitted sour cherries in their garnet-hued syrup; the knobbly, tannic crunch of walnut; the chill breeze of just-cut mint leaves.

If you want, you can heat up a pita loaf or a hunk of barbari, the striated Persian flatbread, to go along. But there's so much happening in this dish, and the labne is so lush and cushiony, that you probably won't miss the carbs.

Hot tea would be suitable. Or some of the cardamom-flavored Yemeni coffee I've been brewing from the sack of Ancient Ma'rib ground beans I purchased right across Westheimer at Qamari Yemeni Coffee Co.

Here's what the ingredients for this simple breakfast cost me. Fresh mint, 2-oz.bunch, 99 cents. Homemade labne, 1 lb. carton, $3.69. Noyan sour cherry preserves, 1 lb. jar, $5.69. Walnut halves and pieces, 14 oz. bag, $6.49. Total=$16.86.

The great part? There's enough labne left for another breakfast or three. And think of the applications for all the remaining fresh mint, walnuts and cherry preserves.

Those sour cherries are as good on ice cream at night as they are on a slab of buttered toast in the morning.