Why Are We So Obsessed With The Same Old Brunch Eggs?
And a recipe for my new favourite egg dish, "Eggs Moqueca"
This week’s post is a post of two halves. The first is an essay which is available to everyone. The second is a paid subscriber perk — a recipe for one of my favourite new egg dishes, Eggs Moqueca. You can get full access to everything at The Sauce, including this recipe, by hitting the button below.
You’ve got to love Anthony Bourdain and his hatred of brunch.
In his words:
No matter how badly I screwed up in my life or how unemployable I was, I could always get a job as a brunch cook because nobody wants to do brunch. … So for me, the smell of eggs cooking and French toast and home fries in the oven was always the smell of shame and defeat and humiliation.
Despite Bourdain, brunch is still beloved. You only have to walk down any city street to see how many cafes are doing a roaring trade in avocado toast and Eggs Benedict. Millennials allegedly spend more time planning brunch than they do dates.
And with brunch comes eggs. And with brunch eggs comes social media posts about eggs. #yolkporn is a thing, my friends.
We are obsessed. And eggs have become… boring.
What once must have looked quite exciting now all looks the same.
Instagram-ready Eggs Benedict. Eggs Florentine. Shakshuka. The poached egg has become a status symbol as well as a yardstick of a chef’s cooking chops.
Because, #yolkporn.
Why the obsession with eggs? And when it comes to brunch, could someone — anyone — do something different?
If I see one more Eggs Benedict on a menu…
The internet has a lot to answer for.
When it comes to food — especially eating out — one of the biggest issues in recent years has been how social media flattens our taste.
New Yorker author Kyle Chayka has written a lot about this subject:
Algorithmic systems influence the kinds of culture we consume as individuals, molding our personal tastes. Stretching beyond the virtual, they reach into physical space, too, influencing what kinds of places and spaces we gravitate toward, whether we’re trying to decide which store to patronize or where to vacation.
When it comes to brunch, this means an unnerving phenomenon of cookie-cutter menus including a lot of egg options.
Not only that but the same egg options. Because the more pictures of perfectly poised Eggs Benedict you see on social media, the more likely you are to order it when you see it.
That is compounded by the #yolkporn phenomenon.
Not all eggs have a soft yolk but I suppose you can’t cut into a pile of scrambled eggs in quite the same social-media-approved way.
The satisfaction of popping a yolk is similar to (sorry to lower the tone) pimple popping. It’s a rush of dopamine. A sense of release.
All of this means whenever I pass by my local brunch spot, I see people pop their Eggs Benny yolks whilst their friend films it and everyone around the table sounds like they’ve just had some personal time.
This is re-enacted across the world, from New York to Paris to Chaing Mai to São Paulo.
All the same, everywhere.
Whilst I’m all for an Eggs Benedict or Shakshuka, I’m growing tired of the lack of creativity brunch chefs across the world give to their egg dishes.
Perhaps it’s like Bourdain says — few people can do brunch well. And thanks to the flattening of personal taste, brunch has an incredibly strong identity which means it’s not exactly the most creative side of cheffing.
But it could be.
The world is your egg
A quick Google search reveals that there are few cultures without eggs.
So why all the same old egg dishes? What about the rest of the world?
I was reminded of this when I went to my friend’s new coffee shop here in Porto. Owner Luiza is Brazilian and proud of it. And you can tell, because sitting on her new menu is Eggs Moqueca.
Moqueca is a Brazilian dish which includes a bright red sauce made from palm oil, coconut milk, lime and coriander.
You can make plenty of different Mocequas, the most common being a seafood stew. In fact, I documented exactly that a few months ago:
Luiza’s version came with two poached eggs (of course) and sourdough bread.
It was a joy to see Moqueca on Luiza’s menu because it speaks more about her and her heritage than a plate of Eggs Florentine ever could.
The same goes for another one of my favourite lunch spots where Cypriot owner Fanis churns out Cypriotic Eggs. Nothing is quite as addictive as a pile of labneh, lashings of spicy oil, eggs, and chives:
Both Luiza and Fanis tell me their egg dishes some of the most popular on the menu. Of course they are — these are eggs we’re talking about.
But at least they’re different. The Cypriotic eggs aren’t even poached (shocking I know), they’re soft-boiled.
Eggs are both (by and large) universally loved and versatile. Wikipedia’s list of notable egg dishes runs to over 165. There is so much more out there than what you see on every brunch menu across the world.
There are Korean Drug Eggs — soft-boiled eggs marinated in all good things like soy sauce, chilli, garlic, ginger and sesame seeds:
Here in Portugal, there is a tradition of using egg yolks in dishes like Pão de Ló, a cake made with — so my friend tells me — around 50 yolks.
And I’d love to see someone do something with century eggs, although perhaps that’s a step too far for brunch spots catering to hungover clientele.
Whilst I’m not overly keen on brunch as a concept — I like to have three square meals a day thank you very much — I’ll always love eggs. I fully understand why the likes of Shakshuka or Eggs Benedict have become so popular.
But we shouldn’t let algorithm-led flattening of tastes limit how we make those eggs or what we order when we’re out.
There is more creativity to be had.
And there’s also the old school. Piles of fluffy scrambled eggs on toast. Eggs sunny side up. Over easy. And my personal childhood favourite —soft-boiled with toast soldiers.
The point is, the world is indeed your egg. The sooner brunch spots realise that, the better.
Eggs Moqueca
This is mashup of flavours that you can adapt as you see fit. Because labneh — strained Greek yogurt — and me are best of friends, I start with that, followed by a thick Moqueca style sauce. You can poach the eggs but I prefer soft-boiled because I find them easier to get right.
The ingredient list may look long but most of it is pantry-driven.
Because red palm oil isn’t easy to source, I substitute it with paprika (the non-smoked kind) and turmeric.
Serves 2