Before we do more (than you want to know??) about eggs and
chickens, a story which definitely belongs in a Food Blog, especially mine:
Soon after we moved to St. Louis in 1965 to work for
Boe….McDonnell Dougla… McDonnell Aircraft Company(!), I began my journey with
good food, cooking, and wine. We wanted to have a celebratory dinner at a great
restaurant, I don’t remember the occasion, but I know it was special because we
chose Tony’s considered one of, if not the finest restaurant in St. Louis. At that time, it was located on N. Broadway,
on the north side of town in an old brick building (still) common in St.
Louis. So I was (what is now called DFD)
in my finest sport coat and tie. We
entered the restaurant somewhat nervously, and were greeting by a person in a
tuxedo: “Good evening Mr. Moody, welcome
to Tony’s, please follow me to your table” and we headed for a carpeted stair
way to the “upstairs”. I was astonished
to see him facing us, walking backward
up the many stairs, holding on to…….. nothing.
Wow. Quite special.
To be truthful, I don’t remember the table nor setting but
was most likely elegant, and settled in.
Nor, do I remember what we drank if we did, but I DO remember that I
ended up ordering “double veal loin chops”.
You know the cut, like a rack of lamb, but served in chops with two rib
bones. Trying to be elegant, I used my
knife to get the meat from the “eye” or lollypop, which was excellent. I left the rib bones on the plate of course. I was about finished when a gentleman
appeared over my shoulder, exclaiming “you’re leaving the best part!”,
whereupon he reached over my shoulder, grabbed a chop and proceeded to separate
it with bare hand sit into two ribs with meat attached neatly replacing them on
the plate. “That’s how you enjoy double
chops!”; that was my introduction to Vince Bommarito and Tony’s. I will never forget that evening.
So it was bittersweet when heard of his passing a week or so
ago at the age of 88. An era was closed
with him. He set the standard for
classic fine dining in St. Louis for years. We ate several times in the new
location on market street. A model of a traditional fine dining restaurant,
front waiters, back waiters, food served simultaneously under plates with silver
domes, all to be revealed with a “Voila” in unison. Vince would move from table to table, eyeing
the food, adjusting the position of a fork here and there, chatting if seemed
appropriate.
Times have moved on, and I suppose there are restaurants that
rise to Tony’s level, but there will always be a special place in my heart for
Vince Bommarito.
I am not sure it’s appropriate to move on to chickens and
eggs, but my love of food furthered by Tony’s restaurant makes it okay. I think I told you my Home Visit Nurse brings
me eggs from her farm, and the other day brought a new carton
Hey! Is that thing a dinosaur egg? Nope, they also have a couple of turkeys and
it’s a turkey egg, quite understandably larger than a mere chicken’s. Speaking
of which, they have three varieties (breeds?) producing eggs in a coat of many
colors.
There is a Silver Phoenix
A beautiful bird that is quite small and friendly and lays
the smallest egg of the bunch (next to the Gobbler’s). they are amenable to people and enjoy being
held and petted. Their eggs are creamy white.
Of a different size is the Black Copper Maran
Which is responsible for the dark brown/coffee colored
eggs. They are not quite as friendly
apparently.
Then without an exotic name is the “Easter Egger” who gives
us the multicolored blues, greens and light browns
Here’s a selection of their eggs
I took a few images
of the same eggs with different backgrounds (sort of a photographic experiment)
to see how it changes how the colors appear..
And a size comparison of turkey, Silver Phoenix and the Black Copper Maran.
As with any “hobby” one can become obsessed and become
immersed in a different world, I think
Mr. Turkey egg will serve as breakfast tomorrow morning.
Speaking of obsessions, the egg lady’s husband has now taken
to growing Mushrooms in his basement. He
was kind enough to send a kit along, trying to get me sucked in!
Just add water and watch
And lastly, a small rant to close this edition.
I often look at online recipes to get some ideas of dishes,
preparations etc. Googling (for
instance) “Sautéed Scallops” gets you a sting of recipes from various sources,
a lot of them from places like “All Recipes” or “So and So eats”. Okay fine, so you select one and click on
it. The first thing that hits you is a
series of ads for whatever you may have looked at lately, or wants you to
download something first, or a start of the recipe broken up by any number of
ads. Not only that, at least on my
machine, a little window opens informing you that “waiting for cache”; “establishing
connection with a secure website”, "request sent" waiting for this and that. Gets so frustrating I usually bail out
without seeing the actual recipe. Sigh.
On the horizon: another visit to The Cow and The Fish (which remains an enigma); following the mushroom saga, and who knows what.
Go SPARTANS, while I
DFD
RIP Vince Bommarito, you did it right
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