Put an egg on it!

The first time I went to Paris was in 1999.   It was a life altering trip in more ways than I can say.  One of the many things about Paris that blew my mind was the food.  Standing on the street trying not to get strawberry jam all over my face while eating a crêpe à la confiture, trying to figure out how they got the ice cream in the profiteroles, that feeling in your sinuses when you eat real dijon mustard….so many defining food moments.  Perhaps one of my most favourite is the day I ate my first Croque Madame.  If you don’t know what that is, I’ll tell you. It’s a ham and cheese sandwich with a cheese sauce on top, which you put under the broiler,and then…wait for it…you put a fried egg on top. A ham and cheese sandwich is a beautiful thing.  I’d eaten many in my life up till then, but nothing had prepared me for the soft yolk running through the sandwich as I sliced through it.  Yes, this is a sandwich you eat with a knife and fork.  It was sticky and gooey and delicious.  And something in me had changed forever.

I realized that I could put eggs on lots of things.  I guess I had lived a sheltered life up till then.  I put eggs on toast, but that was it.  Now poached and fried eggs could sit atop my most favourite things.  I made salads, sandwiches, pizza, and my favourite – corned beef hash.  Fried potatoes with sweet onions, a warm pile of tangy, juicy corned beef, some fresh parsley and dill, cracked pepper and coarse sea salt. The creamy richness of the yolk transforms the dish underneath.   It’s alchemy.  I marvel at the magic of the egg.