Break an egg

Weekend wreckage from our repas en goupe of soft-boiled eggs and chocolats chauds.

Throwback Thursday

 

Lobster and prawns Eggs Benedict on a Sunday morning in Paris.

Hardware Société
(Paris-Melbourne)
10 rue Lamarck 75018

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The setting was 80's London in my pre-Paris days, and Michael Alexander, who I've written about before on this blog, had opened a restaurant, The Chelsea Wharf, to much local fanfare in the media and otherwise, right on Chelsea Harbour.

In no time at all it became the talk of the town. In the cuisine was enfant terrible now celeb chef Marco Pierre White, the sole person, it's been said, who "made Gordon Ramsay cry in the kitchen." With regulars such as George Michael and Boy George streaming in, one would think its success was guaranteed, but it wasn’t. Sadly, it was short-lived. Lax management let a party atmosphere take over and, as Michael would mention more than once over the years with a sigh, he was, after all, a writer, not a restaurateur.

 Sunday mornings saw a gathering of "friends and allies" - those dearest and nearest to him - occupy a very long table for breakfast. As Billy Churchill swayed away on piano and a soft light seeped in through gothic windows, we'd regale in bad jokes and good champagne.

Just across the Thames was Saint Mary's Church and almost everyone would order Bloody Marys and the house Eggs Benedict - or rather, as it appeared on the menu, "Eggs Benedict Arnold," so named for the notorious traitor of the American Revolution buried there. 

 The first - and last - time I pointed this out I was swiftly berated.

“Traitor? From our side of things, Benedict Arnold was a hero!” - BPJ

 

Six of one

A half dozen hard-boiled eggs huddle around a lone salt shaker on a café counter.

Easter eggs

 

Fresh eggs are displayed in nests made of straw at the Bastille market.

 

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 Joyeuses Pâques / Happy Easter 2021

 

💐

 

Your eggs await

 

Today's post is a flashback to the days when cafés were ready for customers on almost every block.

Above: extra large soft-boiled eggs, croissants, coffee and fresh orange juice on a café table near the Bastille

A Franco-American breakfast

 Our usual petit-déjeuner of coffee, tea, baguette toasts, butter and confitures was joined by decidedly Anglo-Saxon visitors: bacon, eggs, and hash browns

Above: organic fresh eggs baked atop a base of crunchy pan-fried hash browns are garnished w/smoky caramelized bacon curls and coriandre; sliced avocado, red onion accompany

Protein boost

Traditionally for workers in need of a quick "protein boost" the hard-boiled egg has returned to Paris café counters.