I’m at the mercy of my own self-indulgent nature when I get a food craving. I’m not saying I have no self-control. I can resist for days, weeks, even months, but when the craving runs deep it will not be denied indefinitely. Sooner or later, I must give in.
Given that eventuality, my usual reaction is to go ahead and indulge, just to rid myself of the need to hold the obsession at bay. If the taunting of cheesecake visions keeps me from getting on with life, then the simple solution is to have a slice.
Recently I’ve been hosting an overarching obsession with one of my most decadent indulgences: Eggs Benedict. I relish the flavor symphony that is the classic Eggs Benedict—English muffin, Canadian bacon, poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce. Clean, simple, classic, traditional. Heart attack on a plate. I could eat it twice a week, but I try to restrict myself to once or twice a year. Right now, it’s been at least a couple of years. I want it so bad I can almost taste it.
So why not succumb? Because I’m having some trouble finding it.
I don’t like the Sunday Brunch thing and generally try to avoid peak crowd times in restaurants. Since most restaurants relegate their Eggs Benedict offering to special days and/or limited hours, I have some trouble coordinating. That’s not really the issue, though, because the craving itself is strong enough to pull me out of the house on a Sunday morning.
The problem is the “tweak”—the compulsive need to make perfect things better. Everyone who does have an Eggs Benedict item on their menu trumpets their own major twist on the traditional recipe. They use a crab cake, lobster or shrimp in place of the Canadian bacon. They use cornbread, asparagus or other substitutes for the English muffin. They proudly proclaim their special sauce is even better than a classic Hollandaise. They are all so damn proud of how nontraditional their dish is, it never seems to have occurred to them that that could be the problem for some of us.
I’m a traditionalist. If it’s swimming in creamed spinach it’s not Eggs Benedict, even though I have nothing against creamed spinach. I don’t want a crab cake hiding under my poached eggs, as much as I love crab cakes.
I’m still searching for that elusive original. I won’t stop until I find it. I can’t. My id won’t let me.