Trendwatch – Eggs In Fashion

Not long ago, eggs weren’t exactly considered haute cuisine, nevermind a dish that chefs or diners got excited about.  But those days are over and eggs are  having their moment in the spotlight. Take the celebrated “Farmer Egg’s” at Acme: It’s not as simple as it sounds, of course.What arrive from the kitchen is are two hollow eggs teeming with steamed cauliflower, aged parmesan cheese and egg yolk, crowned with cauliflower foam and ingeniously served on chicken wire and hay. Floyd Cardoz devotes an entire section of the menu to eggs at North End Grill, his newest venture in Battery Park.  Cardoz meditates on eggs every which way, including a standout coddled eggs with grits and a scotch egg in watercress soup.

There’s duck eggs and quail eggs, free-range and organic, and they all come poached, scrambled, fried or deviled. What we’ve discovered is a new and inventive crop of egg creations, often with ethnic twists, at places, like Cafe Mogador and Maharlika Filipino Moderno. There’s quail egg shooters at Fatty Crab and seriously overstuffed egg sandwiches with lox at Mile End. Keep reading because there’s plenty more!

North End Grill
Address: 104 North End Ave.
Phone: (646) 747-1600
Website: northendgrillnyc.com

Danny Meyer has partnered once again with Chef Floyd Cardoz (Tabla), this time bringing a new brand of American grill cuisine to Manhattan. There are plenty of dishes worth sampling, especially the pumpkin and crab soup, clam pizza and an exceptional pork chop.  But what really sets North End Grillapart is that there’s an entire section of the menu devoted to eggs, upmarket eggs that is.  There’s an unusually fluffy Nova Scotia lobster omelet, tuna tartare with fried quail egg. That’s just for starters. Eggs get scrambled with hen of the woods mushrooms and poached eggs mingle with paddlefish caviar, celery leaf salad, and bottarga. As tried-and-true crab lovers, we’re big fans of Cardoz’s coddle egg with peekytoe crab, bacon and leeks.

Fatty Crab
Address: 643 Hudson St., btwn Horatio & Gansevoort (multiple locations)
Phone: (212) 352-3592
Website: www.fattycrab.com

Remember when eggs were relinquished to the morning hours with coffee or juice?  Eggs have moved on up to primetime, dinner menus nowadays.  Take Fatty Crab,where Zak Pelcaccio’s quail egg shooters are the perfect appetizer. What arrives at the table are a flight of four, slow-poached quail eggs, topped with four different housemade sambals. It’s the perfect segue into Fatty Crab’s epic short rib rendang or watermelon pickles with pork.

Acme
Address: 9 Great Jones St., nr Broadway
Phone: (212)203-2121
Website: acmenyc.com

Lots of restaurants have been surrounded with hype, but Acme has proved it was deserved. Copenhagen’s loss is New York’s gain as chef Mads Refslund, Noma’s founding chef, left Norway and slipped into this NoHo kitchen, transforming this former Cajun joint into a destination for Nordic cuisine.  First, there’s the “Farmer’s Eggs,” a delicate appetizer of steamed baby cauliflower, egg yolk and Parmesan served in a hollow egg shell.  Still hungry? Not a problem because there’s “Chicken and Eggs” for your main course.  It’s a deliciously complicated dish with a poached, then deep-fried egg nestled inside a clay pot with a breast of chicken with crazy skin and fried potatoes.

Maialino
Address: 2 Lexington Ave., btwn 22nd & N. Gramercy Park
Phone: (212) 777-2410
Website: www.maialinonyc.com

The Italians have a way with breakfast, too. Case in point: Maialino’s roast pork and fried egg sandwich. Tucked inside the Gramercy Hotel, this Roman-bent spot and its chef, Nick Anderer, dream up several doozies, including poached eggs with turnips, lentils, and a fried pork terrine as well as baked eggs with guanciale in a spicy tomato sauce. While it’s difficult to pick favorites, we are partial to the trippa with tripe, fried egg, and arugula.

Mile End
Address: 97 Hoyt St., btwn Pacific St. & Atlantic Ave. (Brooklyn)
Phone: (718) 852-7510
Website: mileendbrooklyn.com

Manhattanites gladly make the trip to Brooklyn for Mile End’s Montreal-style Jewish deli food, especially their pastrami, matzo ball soup, poutine, and corned beef. And the eggs are no exception. You might think you’ve had more than your fair share of egg sandwiches, but Mile End’s renditions are worth a detour from the usual corned beef sandwich.  We strongly recommend the “mish-mash,” a delicious layering of of eggs, onions, greens, and your choice of salami or lox on rye or the bacon, egg and Quebec cheddar on rye.

Wilfie and Nell
Address: 228 W. 4th St., btwn 7th Ave. & W. 10th St.
Phone: (212) 242-2990
Website: wilfieandnell.com

If you’ve never seen or sampled a proper Scotch egg, here’s your chance to try one of the best versions in the city. At Wilfie and Nell, this traditional Irish pub snack starts with a hard boiled egg wrapped in sage sausage, breaded, deep-fried. The finishing touches are a sprinkling of sea salt and cracked black pepper with a side of proper English mustard. And yes, it’s just as decadent and delicious as it sounds.

‘ino
Address: 21 Bedford St., btwn 6th Ave. & Downing
Phone: (212) 989-5769
Website: www.cafeino.com

It’s no easy triumph to survive in New York’s dining scene, but ‘ino has done just that and there’s no sign for this Italian spot. But a 14-year run for a dish? That’s an even bigger feat. Jason Denton’s Lower East Side eatery has been dishing out truffled egg toast since it first opened. This now, iconic dish starts with a thick slice of bread, smothered with truffled, fontina cheese. There’s a hole in the center of the bread, nestling a runny egg yolk that oozes across the plate as you take a (big) forkful for devouring.

Cafe Mogador
Address: 101 St. Marks Pl., btwn 1st Ave. & Ave. A
Phone: (212) 677-2226
Website: www.cafemogador.com

Breakfast and eggs go hand and hand, but at Cafe Mogador, every egg-centric dish is injected with a Middle Eastern flair.  This ain’t your typical morning menu. There’s “Moroccan eggs” poached and served with spicy tomato sauce, home fries, and pita.  “Middle Eastern eggs” come with hummus, tabouli, and za’atar pita and “foul madamez” come with poached eggs, fava beans, and hummus. Come the weekend, there’s plenty more egg-inspired creations, like eggs benedict, there’s eggs normandy, eggs champignon, and eggs florentine, all served over an english muffin with hollandaise sauce, homefries, and mesculun salad.

The House
Address: 121 E. 17th St., btwn Park Ave. & Irving Place
Phone: (212) 353-2121
Website: www.thehousenyc.com

Deviled eggs are one of those dishes most people either love or hate. Even if you’re a hater, you might change your mind after you try the “Deviled Egg Tasting” at The House, a charming brownstone in Gramercy. Their “Deviled Egg Tasting”  comes with deviled eggs three ways – one topped with caviar and creme fraiche, jalepeno lobster, and ‘bacon and eggs.’ (Warning, these tasty little morsels go quickly!)

Maharlika Filipino Moderno
Address: 111 1st Ave., btwn 6th & 7th Sts.
Phone: (646) 392-7880

One of our favorite egg finds have a uniquely Filipino flair.  If you haven’t been to Maharlika Filipo Moderno, the eggs here are the perfect excuse. The menu is scattered with traditional dishes, including the Tortang Talong with grilled eggplant and sauteed sibuyas(onions) scrambled with eggs, and accompanied by kamatis(tomatoes), pepito, and a wansoy relish, with patis and a black swan soy sauce dressing.  If you’re a brave eater, it’s your duty to conquer the Pampangan-style sizzling sisig with egg, a snout to tail Filipino classic.  Maharlika’sversion comes with pig ears, snout, cheek and belly boiled, grilled, and sauteed with onions, garlic, and lemon, and served over garlic rice and eggs. Wash it down with a Tang mimosa and call it a day.