Fried Eggs, Spanish Style
Photo by House of Sims/Flickr CC
If everyone's truth is their own then it's pretty safe to say that everyone's fried egg is their own as well. Not growing up as a egg aficionado I'm sort of latecomer to this one. Other people I know are totally adamant about 'em--they pour out their passions for fried egg sandwiches, fried eggs on grits, fried eggs with bacon, fried eggs over-easy, hard, medium or just about any other way you can imagine.
Witness these words from Gauri Thergaonkar, manager of the retail area at the Deli: "I love fried eggs. Fried eggs are about as elemental as an egg preparation technique gets. I like 'em when the yolk is still almost runny. I think the best fried eggs are not swimming in fat but have been basted with fat during the frying. I like em in butter, duck fat, or olive oil.
My favorite way to eat fried eggs is existentially, essentially Spanish.
"The whites in a fried egg should be slightly crispy where they made contact with the frying pan but silky on top. Like the yolks, which must always be silky. Which means I like my fried eggs sunny side up--a truth that is so obvious to me that I forgot to mention. Why would you have them any other way? If you're going to break the yolk," she adds with a passion for purity that I can relate to, "make an omelet."
I haven't really given fried eggs anywhere near that much thought. I just kind of like them. My favorite way to eat them is existentially, essentially Spanish, and they're an underrated addition to the quick-to-make, great-to-eat traditional cooking style that I adhere to. The formula for fried eggs Spanish style is really pretty simple:
Good eggs + good olive oil + a sprinkling of good coarse sea salt + a good grind of good Telicherry black pepper
=
really, really good Spanish-style fried eggs
Stick a couple of these babies on toasted good bread with more good olive oil and...it's a five-minute meal that's hard to beat. Remember it's all in the oil and the eggs so don't try this with low grade versions of either.