Went out to eat today with my mom and grandparents for Mother’s Day.
We went to a semi-fancy-yet-homey feeling inn/restaurant. I ordered what amounted to eggs benedict (with some additions to the standard ingredients).
It’s perhaps one of my favorite breakfasts ever. And we (grandpa) were paying a sort of hefty price for a mom’s day brunch. So, it should be really good, right?
And it almost was. But . . . poached eggs are supposed to be runny, no? These had basically solid yolks! Way too cooked. And not just mine, but mom’s and grandpa’s as well. I don’t know if either of them cared; it was mom’s day and I was being treated, so I didn’t want to complain, but it was a huge disappointment.
And, thinking back, the last time I got an eggs benedict, I had the same problem, practically solid yolk. Gah! It can’t be a salmonella/health issue, can it? I can still get my eggs over easy anywhere I go.
It was just such a let down; if I would have known I would have probably ordered something different.
Eggs Benedict with a practically solid yolk? Talk about missing the point. I don’t think I’ve ever sent food back at a a restaurant, but that would do it for me.
It’s not that difficult. A generous amount of vinegar in the cooking water seems to be the key in helping them coagulate into a tight shape. The hollandaise can be the tricky part, but there are plenty of foolproof blender hollandaise recipes out there that it’s not difficult to do. I’ve never tried the blender variations, being a bit old-school purist about these sorts of things, but from what I hear, they’re pretty damn close to the traditionally made sauce.
I sympathize; Eggs Benedict done right is one of those things that takes existence from mere toil to a treasured moment. Good EggsB is ambrosia.
Having said that, Mother’s Day is pretty close to the busiest restaurant breakfast day of the year, so ordering EggsB and expecting excellence on that day is probably unrealistic. Get some good 'ole Ham n Eggs — stick to basics and you’ll probably be less likely to be disappointed.
I’d also send them back. Eggs Benedict must have runny yolks!
They also need Hollandaise. This thread makes me remember a breakfast I had maybe 6-7 years ago. Hubby and I went to the local historical hotel for breakfast, not a place we normally go because it’s all foo-foo and we are usually half asleep and in dirty T-shirts and shorts when we go to breakfast. But not today! We wanted a fancy breakfast.
We got to foo-foo restaurant, get seated. There’s maybe 3 other tables. I order eggs benedict. Takes fooooorrrreeeevvveerr to get our food, and when it comes out, it’s just Mr. Athena’s. Waitress says “your eggs benedict will be right up.”
We wait… at least another 5-10 minutes, all the while Mr. Athena’s eggs are getting cold.
Finally, waitress brings my eggs benedict. She puts down the plate. It’s two poached eggs sitting on canadian bacon on english muffins. Ummm… where’s the hollandaise?
“I’m sorry,” she says “But the chef says he’s too busy to make hollandaise.”
:eek:
She walks away. Mr. Athena and I look at each other in disbelief, then both get up and walk out. As we’re leaving the restaurant, the waitress comes running after us waiving a ramekin. “Look!” she says “your hollandaise!” I look at it. It’s bright orange and crunchy around the edges. Of course, by then, even if it had been perfect, we’d have still left.
This is the same place that when we were in the bar once, celebrating something-or-other with a foo foo bottle of champagne, we asked for an ice bucket. After waiting until the champagne was 3/4 gone, we finally got the ice bucket - an empty drywall bucket filled with ice.
Maybe the poster meant froo froo (however it’s spelled). Or maybe the restaurant normally specialized in rabbit stew (but it just happened to be duck season).
According to Wiktionary, the word is frou-frou or froufrou and means overly elaborate. Not to speak for Smeghead, but I think his point was that a restaurant that provides a drywall bucket for an ice bucket and where the waitress claims the chef is too busy to make hollandaise sauce for eggs Benedict isn’t very elaborate or fancy.
Heh. The point I was making is that this particular hotel sets itself up as frou frou but doesn’t carry through. Big fancy lobby, elaborate menu in the restaurant, fancy chairs, high prices, white table cloths… but the chef can’t be bothered to make hollandaise.
Speaking of eggs benedict, is there a particular meat that anyone prefers best. I usually get the standard (in NJ diners) with Canadian Bacon. But I’m always willing to try others.
I prefer summersausage. A good pork sausage patty is nice too. Nothing wrong with Canadian bacon, but it always presents a challenge to cutting it. My feeling is that whatever the meat is, it should be able to be cut with a fork.
(Or bitten thru, if one is eating one’s eggs benedict sandwich-style)