hrj

 Any time I check out a new breakfast cafe, one of the first things I order is Eggs Benedict. My theory is that a restaurant that can make good Eggs Benedict can be trusted for almost anything. And yet, what they heck kind of dish is Eggs Benedict anyway?

It is--let us be honest--awkward to eat. The layers that make it an exquisite visual creation are slippery, and the art of slicing it up into bite-sized pieces that include all the strata takes long to master and can fail at any point. The perfect poached egg that sits at the heart of the construction will immediately deflate into a pool of yolk when first addressed with knife and fork. If one is (as this one generally is) also juggling either an iPad or a book while eating a leisurely cafe breakfast, the need to wield two implements to eat the dish creates another impediment.

And yet... And yet...

One of my favorite breakfast cafes is Min's Kitchen on Clayton Road (a nice shortish bike ride away). In addition to the classic Benedict (Canadian bacon, eggs, hollandaise sauce) and the widely familiar Florentine Benedict (add spinach), the stereotypical California Benedict (with avocado & tomato) and a variety of seafood-based Californias (seafood is a speciality of their dishes) substituting shrimp and/or crab for the meat. Though Min's doesn't do this one, another favorite of mine is a smoked salmon Benedict--something of the love-child of a salmon bagel and a Benedict.

I regularly make Benedict breakfasts at home, thought it rarely feels like the result is worth the amount of work. (Because, of course, I make the Hollandaise from scratch.) But there's just something about creating a dish that is meant to be admired visually before being consumed. I don't usually have Canadian bacon around the house, so if I don't have smoked salmon on hand, I'll sub in regular bacon, nice and crispy. For a Florentine style, I find that sorrel, minced and sautéed up in butter, can make do for the tanginess of the Hollandaise as well as adding greenery. And, I confess, microwaving the eggs in a silicone cup is a lot easier than trying for the perfect poached egg (as well as making it easier to firm up the yolks to a less runny state).

This morning's breakfast-in-the-garden is a bit of a "what's in the fridge" version of the dish. Base layer on the English muffin of cream cheese (left over from my salmon-bagel splurge), sliced black forest ham (impulse buy -- as noted, I don't normally keep ham around the house, but I though it might make a nice lighter protein addition to some meals), nuked egg, and sorrel sauce on top. This time, it worked perfectly. The roses are blooming, the birds are singing, the Eggs Floren-sorrel-ham-tine are delicious, and the world balances in its turning for just one moment.