Thursday, March 8, 2012

Patience at breakfast

Not that I'm an lover of eggs, I rarely go to work on one and, despite an occasional hankering for bread fried delectably crisp and brown in bacon fat, for years have avoided that artery-blocker known to hoteliers as Full English breakfast, but one of the best things about breakfast in London is a well-poached egg.  Atop a flake or two of smoked salmon and part of what was called a healthy breakfast - muesli with berries, beetroot and carrot juice and fresh fruit - the poached egg I ate each morning at our London hotel was a real treat, except, that is, for the batty idea of serving it in a glass bowl.


Once, whilst traipsing around the wilds of Pennsylvania, the Celt, in one of those moments that make even partners of thirty-odd years mildly breathless with wonder, announced that the silicone egg poaching cups he'd just found were what he'd been searching for for ever. Given we haven't been inside a kitchen store for years, and eat between us no more than a half-a-dozen eggs a year and, if there were poaching to be done, I would be the one cussing doing it, I pondered, as one well might, the meaning of it all.

The tedium of standing over a pan of quivering water pretending that one even needs to produce an aesthetic egg has meant, as you might imagine, that the poaching cups, loll, unused, in a drawer with all the other must-haves no longer loved. Actually, my problem with them is that I can taste the silicone on the egg and so they are ostracized, much as are the eggs they're designed to hold.

This weekend we are in Manhattan to see Gilbert and Sullivan's, and the Celt's beloved, Patience at Symphony Space, and to visit with family and friends. Breakfast, rarely eaten in hotel dining rooms, for neither of us, will be an egg.

20 comments:

  1. other than producing a 'perfect looking' (and plastic appearing) poached egg, I just think those 'poaching cups' are a rip off. It's a relatively easy task and a few bigs of 'unperfection' just go to show that it's an egg: a natural thing!

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    1. ArchitectDesign, I totally agree! A poached egg is about the version of egg dishes I like.

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  2. Blue, for many years I lived on W 11th St just around the corner from Elephant & Castle. If you happen to find yourself in G Village at breakfast time, I highly recommend their Santa Fe Breakfast -- a sunnyside egg, cheddar, bacon, tomato, and guacamole on a crisp tortilla.

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    1. The Devoted Classicist, thank you. I might just travel across the city for that breakfast. I must admit, though, i'm more of a cup of coffee and bowl of muesli with almond milk kind of a guy.

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  3. I kind of like the whole procedure of dropping the egg in the simmering water. It fascinates me to keep folding over the whites until I have everything all tidied up. I've never used one of the cups altho I do have a poacher I seldom use.

    Like you not much of a breakfast eater, but adore Eggs Benedict for brunch...with a Bloody Mary of course! Have a great trip.

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    1. lindaraxa, thank you. I once adored Eggs Benedict - until they decided they did not adore me. On Sunday in New York I had steak and eggs for brunch with a glass of rough red chianti - thoroughly enjoyed it. See you soon, I hope? Let me know when you want to come in to town and we'll have dinner together.

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  4. I too bought silicone egg poachers, in the shape of a lady's breast, (silicone and breasts, now there's an idea), but found them to be quite difficult to use, in that removing the poached egg virtually broke the yoke, and the egg looked no more poached than a trout from my river.

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    1. columnist, thank you. That is precisely the shape of the silicone poachers in the kitchen drawer. They still need greasing to allow eggs to be released easily. its the taste of them transferred to the egg that I find so repellant.

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  5. Loved the photo-Claridges?

    We frequently have poached eggs, made in one of those admittedly rather naff steamers, my wife discovered that if you spray the plastic cup with Fry Light-only 1 calorie-the egg will slip out perfectly. Try it, you'll be hooked.

    May I suggest,the late Gary Hager (d.1990?) as a candidate for one of your profiles of lost talented designers?

    Best

    Herts

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    1. Anonymous Herts, thank you. Yes, it was Claridge's and their poached eggs were perfect - as were their bathrooms and beds. I shall look for one of those steamers when next over - I'd forgotten about them and if they are made with a non-stick interior - naff or not - I'll buy one. I'm not too proud to have perfectly round and perfectly cooked poached egg.

      I wrote about Gary Hager a while back but thank you for reminding me about him - one of the best, I think. Thank

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  6. There's an Elizabeth David recipe called Oeufs Mollet in her book
    of French Provincial Cookery~essentially, an egg that is par-boiled in
    its shell, after which the shell is removed with the greatest care before
    reheating it very gently in a shallow pan with herbs and butter. True,
    it's a bother, but one worth the effort since you end up with a poached
    egg that isn't water logged or worse, stuck onto a wretched 'poacher'.

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    1. Toby Worthington, thank you. I gave that book to my sister-in-law many a year ago, before I discovered she preferred not to cook. I have just looked for the recipe in other books of David's I have and haven't found a reference for Oeufs Mollet which is a shame, really, as I remember it and now want to try it at the weekend. Undoubtedly, Amazon has an old copy somewhere that I can get.

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  7. i agree with you about cooking in silicone: Yuck! I have learned to cook eggs sunnyside up in pan with a little butter, add a little water and then cover and steam over low heat. I do remember my mother and grandmother cooking eggs and basting with bacon grease! Eggs have gotten a bad rap and I appreciate their flexibility and their being a good source of protein. I've had to admit I do better with more protein than with carbs so our favorite brunch spot serves eggs and angus filet which we wolf down with a bottle of malbec!

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    1. home before dark, thank you. I'm Atkinsing, so protein is where I'm at, as it were. Eggs and angus filet (pronounced in this house as fillit) and malbec - precisely what I'd like for dinner tonight. Eggs fried in bacon grease then served with fried bread in the same grease was heaven on a plate when I was a kid - which is precisely why I'm dieting now!

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  8. Nothing better exposes the problem of the hotel dining room than the hotel breakfast service, and no one I read would be in a better position to remark on it. Notice how satisfactory your table would have been for dinner, and how infallibly and tiresomely mauled and cluttered it as by breakfast, where frankly the tendency toward unusual consumption is naturally given seductive support. There has never been a cure for this; even the sideboard service results in a recurring emergency of clearings; and who's to say one doesn't want one's berries accessible throughout the meal? Then, naturally, there is the problem of the newspaper ...

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    1. Ah, yes, the newspaper. In my case it was an iPhone not a newspaper. I find all restaurant tables cluttered to the point of idiocy. And overly-attentive waiters not waiting for one to finish sentences as they constantly check in to see how one is doing drives me to distraction. Makes me wonder why I go out to eat, so irritating can it be.

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  9. Blue, there's a version of that oeufs mollet recipe in Mrs David's book
    on Italian Food.

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    1. That book I have but did not think to look there. Thank you, Mr Worthington.

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  10. Her oeufs mollets [sic] à la Crécy, immediately following the first mentioned version in the French Provincial Cooking, foretells a truly luminous arterial event for us all, a splendour of sautéed/caramelised carrot, béchamel (and she wants it "thick") and breadcrumbs. Frankly, I'd give up a half day, if I could choose the one, for that!

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    1. Luckily, I have just eaten or I would be looking for that recipe. Sounds delicious. Thank you, Laurent.

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