Memorable Egg
Saturday, 3 January 2009 by kinakoJam
Pictured: egg carpaccio with shrimps and pine nuts from Bar Mut in Barcelona
I'm sure my fellow Gut Feelings bloggers will agree, 2008 was a year of remarkable eggs.
Some of us had the chance to enjoy barely-congealed 'onsen tamago' on top of various dishes in Japan, when not inventing new egg presentations or trying out recipes for Iranian saffron omelettes, khai paloo and finger-licking real caesar salad in Bangkok.
Others among us made Mark Bittman's recipe (or should that be Haiku) for two 6-minute floppy eggs on grated carrot with lemon juice/olive oil dressing and seasoning many times in 08, especially when dining solo. It's a simply elegant, super-quick, cheap AND delicious dish.
When well-seasoned, hot liquid egg yolks add a luxurious slickness to a dish, and in the above recipe, make a surprisingly apt combo with the tart lemon juice dressing and crisp carrots. Eggs give great bang for their buck.
Over in Barcelona, I had probably my most memorable egg: the salt-cod tortilla at Carles Abellan's Tapaç 24. In fact, Barcelona seems to be something of an egg mecca. From lightly scrambled duck eggs on top of french fries, to Galician hen egg with foie, there are many chefs utilising the rich and simple flavour of sloppy eggs.
Barcelona: big up yo eggs.
The photos on this post are from two places there that I didn't get around to blogging about earlier: the creole-vietnamese-catalan fusion spot Me,
and the bistro/tapas restaurant Bar Mut.
It might look gimicky, but the photo above doesn't do Bar Mut's egg carpaccio justice. It is very hot and liquid in places, and is best eaten quickly upon serving.
Below is Bar Mut's egg alla romana: an interesting juxtaposition of the egg (which had that dense, chewy texture that you get from baking eggs: am not sure if it was pre-baked but it was definitely briefly fried after being coated in a dusting of flour) and the slightly bitter squid ink-infused tomato-lentil mush.
The pretty egg below is for dipping earthy mushrooms into, at Me in Barcelona.
My favourite egg joke:
Why do the French eat only one egg for breakfast?
Because one egg is unurff (enough/un oeuf).
