“I’ve long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime ‘associates,’ food, for me, has always been an adventure”
Another beautiful day today: it’s cool and sunny and bright. I was up early and even had time for a dump run before I went out to breakfast. I need to do a few errands later as it is movie night, and we’re out of malted milk balls. They are essential for movie viewing. We’re going to watch the one we didn’t see last week: The Night of the Hunter.
It is so quiet today. I don’t know where everyone has gone. I don’t hear a single kid or even a barking dog. Gracie just came inside the house. I think it must be morning nap time. Fern is already asleep in the sun from the front door. She is stretched out in the way only cats can stretch. I don’t know where Maddie is, but I suspect she’s on my bed. That is her favorite nap place.
My breakfast spot is busy every Sunday. All the breakfast spots are busy every summer Sunday. I go early to snag a booth as my friend doesn’t believe in waiting. She’d drive right through at the sight of a line. Today for breakfast I had dropped eggs on toast as my mother always called them. I didn’t learn until I was older they’re called poached eggs, but I still prefer calling them dropped eggs. It is far more descriptive and leaves no doubt as to how the eggs will arrive.
Other than in England and Ireland, my father hated breakfast in Europe. He thought cold cuts and cheese were lunch, never breakfast. I remember once in the Netherlands when an egg arrived in an egg cup. My father’s delight was evident in his smile and he immediately went for the egg. He tapped it with his knife the way he always did when served a boiled egg. Nothing happened so he tapped it again. Nothing happened the second time either. My father picked up the egg and tapped it on the table. That was when he found out it was hard-boiled. He put it on the table and never touched it again.
On many of my trips I had no idea what I was eating. I didn’t know the language so I couldn’t read the menus or the signs. Sometimes I had a book of English to whatever language, but usually I didn’t carry one as it was just extra weight in my back pack. I pointed and hoped for the best. Luckily I don’t remember ever hating what was placed in front of me. I also think not only probably had its advantages.
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Tags: beautiful day, dropped eggs on toast, Fern, foreign foods, Gracie, nap, Night of the Hunter, Poached egg, strange foods
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July 22, 2012 at 11:49 am
The day started cool and foggy but later turned to semi cloudy and rather nice since a breeze keeps most flies away.
I have heard lawn mowers and hammering here most of the day but the heaviest I’ve done is to thin the spinach in my vegetable patch 🙂
I can’t eat any kind of fried food as breakfast, that’s just to early. A boiled egg works or porridge but that’s it 🙂
I’ve thankfully always either understood the menu or had a friend with me that understood it 🙂 But what we don’t know won’t kill us as we usually say here 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
July 22, 2012 at 12:05 pm
Christer,
I’m hoping our breeze will keep the mosquitos at bay tonight.
Other than the dump run, I haven’t done a single thing. That’s fine with me!
I sometimes have fried eggs over easy, and I have no problem with them. They are one of the breakfast traditions here.
I agree about what we don’t know. A food often tastes good until me know what it is so not knowing is sometimes better. Let the taste and not the creature be the deciding factor.
July 22, 2012 at 11:59 am
Yesterday we broke a record of 107 F or 46.6 C. Regardless of how you measure the temperature it was hot. There were spotty thunderstorms which missed my yard completely.
I am not a big fan of eggs. I don’t like them scrambled nor hard or soft boiled and only occasionally will I find someone who knows how to make a fluffy omelet. I will eat them fried as long as the yolks are not hard (made over easy) or dropped (soft poached) when served on an english muffin covered with hollandaise sauce aka eggs benedict.
When I travel around I love having a wide choice of cheese, breads, fruit and cold cuts on the breakfast buffet. I especially love good croissants and good crusty french bread. I found this kind of buffet breakfast in Europe, China, Dubai and in the hotels in both Santiago and Sao Paulo.
I will generally eat anything that won’t bite back. I loved the Chinese food I ate while in Zhuhai which was ordered by my Chinese colleagues. In Hong Kong the menus were in both Chinese and in English. Don’t serve me any kind of curry, raw fish or very hot (peppery) food. I find that too much heat over powers the other flavors and the only thing I can taste is hot peppers. Very hot spicy food not only doesn’t suite my palette but hurts the next day on the way out.
July 22, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Bob,
That is just awful. Yours and the weather in the mid-west always rates a mention in our TV weather reports.
I’m with you on wanting yolks on my over easy eggs, but I really like them almost anyway they’re cooked. Eggs Bennie (as my mother called them) is a favorite of mine.
I’m with you in loving the meats and cheeses and most especially the breads. In most countries breakfast is no different than other meals. It was that way in Ghana because every morning you could hear the pounding of fufu!
In the better hotels across South American you could get eggs as most of those hotels had a huge buffet set up each morning. Fruit was also big on the buffet.
I too will eat almost anything. I love curry, but I seldom find it too hot to taste the food. In Ghana the food was so heavily hot peppered my fingers sometimes burned-I hated it that way. I’d ask them to cook it without the red pepper.
July 22, 2012 at 1:52 pm
Hi Kat,
I saw a Spawn of Satan in a frying pan and thought “Oh, no. It’s gonna be bad!” 😀
Eggs are one of my favorites but only if I cook them myself. They don’t always like me. But eggs from chickens I personally know, cooked by me don’t seem to give me a problem. I don’t normally do poached eggs but one brunch that I remember most fondly consisted of poached eggs on top of crab-stuffed ravioli with some sort of cream sauce. The yolks were perfectly soft and blended in with the other items so well. Heavenly. Much too sublime to be called dropped eggs. 🙂 It was at the Renault Winery in Egg Harbor NJ, oddly enough.
As far as strange food goes, I will try anything once. Except tongue. Can’t bring myself to do that yet and I’m not sure why because I have eaten many stranger things in my life.
It’s another lovely day up here. Just starting to get a bit humid but nothing too bad. The neighborhood is quiet. The kids next door have summer reading assignments and I think their parents have put the hammer down. I saw the son sitting on the front steps with a book while he was watching over The Lizard Henry as it basked in its playpen. I couldn’t tell if he was actually reading the book but he was holding it.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
July 22, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Hi Caryn,
See, you judged me too harshly!
When I went to Ghana last summer, the eggs everywhere I went were awful so I started having fruit for breakfast. I never cook porched myself. but I do like them every now and then.
Those eggs sound amazing. I’d order them too!
I laughed at tongue. Years ago, when I was in Kumasi, Ghana on my way north I stayed at the Catering Rest House and ate in their restaurant. The first course was tongue. It came out on lettuce, and I swear it looked as if someone was under the table sticking his tongue out at me. I tasted it and one taste was more than enough!
I used to love the book lists and had them finished by early July.
Love the name Henry the Lizard!
Have a great evening.
July 22, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Love to try foreign food, but for breakfast I always miss my whole-grain spelt bread abroad.
And I will never ever eat chinese fried chicken feet again. Too strange.
Ok, I can’t resist. Another subtitled Loriot-sketch linked in name.
“The breakfast egg”. In memory of your father.
July 22, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Birgit,
I used to eat head and foot broth made by cooking those chicken parts together. The broth was tasty but I never ate the parts themselves.
The Breakfast Egg-thanks!!
July 22, 2012 at 7:33 pm
When I was in Orlando last week we had lunch at Roadside Inn. Not sure if they are up your way. The menu was written in English and Spanish. Maybe Europe has caught onto that idea. Worked for us.
July 22, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Z&Me,
I don’t think there are any up here. I haven’t ever heard of it. English and Spanish-first time I’ve heard of that written on a menu