Tag Archives: eggs

Chicago’s Pancake House

My boyfriend is from Chicago and I always look forward to our trips back to the Midwest to visit his family. Not only do I love his family, but I have come to love Chicago as well (don’t tell any of my New York friends). Chicago is full of friendly & energetic people, the crowd is both young and old (if you want to call people “old”), and the city is spectacularly clean (unlike NYC).

We have also had many exciting culinary experiences in the city of Chicago (remember my post on Joe’s?). Of course I am now dying to go to Giuliana & Bill Rancic’s new restaurant, but this trip to Chicago didn’t give us any time to squeeze in a dinner out on the town (we were in town for a wedding). So, we settled for a tasty breakfast instead of dinner.

In the downtown section of Chicago we walked from the new Waldorf Astoria to the Pancake House, which was only a few blocks away from each other. Architecture in Chicago is very different than typical New York City buildings — I love how you can see everything in Chicago all on one block no less… You’ll see the newly designed buildings that have a more “green” and exotic style, you’ll see the old-school (yet gorgeous) town houses, and then you’ll see a random little building like the Pancake House that looks like someone’s personal country-style home. So adorable!

Luckily we arrived before a huge rush — although the restaurant was already packed and we ended up waiting for about 15 minutes. The orange juice that was sipped down before our food arrived was freshly squeezed and exceptionally refreshing! We ordered the Apple Pancake and the Dutch Baby to share with the entire table — these two dishes are signature plates that you must order to get the full experience. I love apples, so of course I knew I would enjoy the Apple Pancake. I guess I wasn’t expecting how much I would love it though. Think of two things: apple pie, and cinnamon pancakes. Now, put the two together. That’s exactly what the Apple Pancake is… fluffy pancakes with rich cinnamon-glazed granny apple slices. It’s also a great dish to share with everyone, it’s easy to cut and isn’t as messy as you might expect!

I wasn’t as big of a fan of the Dutch Baby, probably because my boyfriend ordered it as “The Dutch Pancake.” Having spent time in The Netherlands, I expected to have more of a classic Dutch-style pancake… and that’s not what the Dutch Baby is.

I recently watched an episode of “The Barefoot Contessa” where Ina baked her pancakes in the oven (brilliant, I have to say). When she took the pancakes out of the oven they were extremely fluffed up and the outside of the pancake was much higher than the middle. That’s exactly what this Dutch Baby looked like. Covered with whipped butter, lemon, and powdered sugar, the Dutch Baby is crispier on the edges and softer in the middle. The flavor wasn’t anything spectacular and was fairly bland.

I ordered a skillet that had the following in the dish: hash browns on the bottom, green pepper, red pepper, onion, and pepper jack cheese, topped with 2 eggs that were cooked over-easy. Once I punctured the egg and let the egg yolk run out all over the hash browns, veggies and cheese I knew the flavors would infuse perfectly together. And I was right! The pepper jack cheese add a beautiful spice to the plate — it was nothing overwhelming, but a little heat makes eggs taste great (wouldn’t you agree?). Quickly my boyfriend’s fork made its way over to my skillet and he enjoyed the dish just as much as I did!

I hope we are able to go back the next time we are in Chicago! The prices were very reasonable and the service was extremely attentive. Bravo Pancake House, bravo!

Cooking Eggs, Creatively

I’m a major fan of the “Egg in a Hole” sort of breakfast dish. Why is this so darn tasty? I have no clue. Why is it so darn appealing? Well, an egg in a hole is just so adorable!

I couldn’t help but get a little creative with my egg cooking the other week — so I gave it a shot to cook up an egg not in a hole of bread, rather in the a slice of pepper. Obviously, the larger the pepper, the better! My biggest tips: be sure to cut the pepper nice and thick, other wise when you crack the egg and pour it into the pepper it will spill over the top if the pepper isn’t tall enough. Also, be sure to slice the pepper evenly because if it isn’t then the egg can also spill from the bottom. It’s also a good idea to let the pepper start to cook first so it has a solid bottom.

After cooking my egg in a pepper (with a pinch of salt and pepper to season), I placed it on top of a piece of simple toast. I sprinkled 1/2 teaspoon of parm cheese over top and then ate!

So simple, yet so delish! You have to love these simple, silly ideas! I believe I received my inspiration from a Tumblr photo I saw months ago. I’m now trying to think of other ideas for breakfast… What else can you cook an egg in?

a fun way to cook an egg

Inside an Italian Grocery Store

Typically when you are touring a city you might not think to go inside a grocery store. But if you want to see what the Italians are cooking at home, I strongly suggest you explore a local grocery store, even a chain grocery store!

When in Amsterdam I spent practically every single day in the local Albert Heijn grocery store. I was either picking up dinner, or getting more eggs for breakfast, or I was buying up insanely cheap (30 euro cents a pint) beer! So I knew when I went to Italy that I needed to make sure I got inside a local shop.

I was in Rome when I went into my first Italian grocery store. I was so disappointed that I couldn’t do my heavy duty shopping because all I wanted to do was fill up an entire grocery cart and take everything home! In American grocery stores you can go down an aisle for noodles, for pasta, for mexican food, for chinese food… but in an Italian grocery store there is only one type of cuisine that you can buy. Can you guess what is it?

The entire store is packed with just Italian cuisine. So of course you can find your pasta, risotto, cheese, meat, etc etc. Actually, I loved that instead of a “Rice A Roni” type of boxed rice, you could buy a similar brand except it was for risotto! If I lived in Italy, I would be very satisfied with my food!

While in the store I picked up a few treats for some friends back home. Including European chocolate bars and various cookies and candies that you can only find abroad. (I hope they enjoyed them!)

Below are photos inside of a grocery store, and a couple of pictures from the outside of a store in Florence!

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How Often Do You Get 2 Yolks In One Egg?

cracked_eggs

The top two (smaller) yolks came from the same egg! the bottom (larger) yolk came from another egg. Take a look at the size difference!

It’s happened to me a few times, but every time is a shocker. OH! LOOK! TWO EGG YOLKS IN ONE EGG! I showed my boyfriend when I was cooking breakfast, and I said to him “awww, they would have been twins” and he looked at me like I had ten heads, “what do you mean, twins?” and I reminded him that chicken eggs are unfertilized eggs. Just like caviar a chicken egg is, well, an egg…
So what I want to know is, what’s the average number of times that people run into this? We found 2 eggs just like that in the one carton that we had in the refrigerator.
What about you? How often do you run into this? And do you ever get grossed out by it?