EGGS CHESAPEAKE

Before talking about eggs Chesapeake, one has to know how it’s forefather, Eggs Benedict, came about. Eggs Benedict is an American brunch staple that consists of a poached egg and ham and set atop an open English muffin and finished with hollandaise sauce. But where did this decadent dish come from? As in most culinary lore, there are conflicting origins stories, but let’s stick with the most popular and colorful account. The story goes that in 1894 Lemuel Benedict, a retired Wall Street stock broker and legendary booze hound wandered into the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC in search of a cure for his latest hangover. He ordered “buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of Hollandaise.” (Can we please bring back “hooker” as slang for “slug” or “gulp” of alcohol? Thanks.) The famed maître d’hotel of the Waldorf, Oscar Tschirky, saw the promise of this combination and put it on the hotel’s breakfast and brunch menu, substituting ham for the bacon and an English Muffin for the toast.

One thing that makes Eggs Benedict such a favorite dish is the amount of variations that it has spawned.  Just as “Oscar of the Waldorf” changed out the bacon for ham, people have been tweaking the layers of this dish for years-Eggs Florentine, Eggs Royale, Huevos Benedict, Eggs Commander’s…the list goes on and on. Egg’s Chesapeake is the way we roll at the Lake Effect Diner. In this version, we substitute our very own Dug’s Dive Crab Cakes for the ham. To kick it up a notch even further we also trade out the basic English Muffin for buttered griddled slices of our house made baguette. So let’s review- perfectly medium poached eggs, over our meaty crab cakes, on top of toasty baguette slices. All topped with our scratch made Hollandaise sauce and a sprinkling of paprika. If you have never had hollandaise sauce, it’s a savory, warm, rich, and buttery cream sauce with a mild lemony tang. Everything about this dish screams culinary indulgence. Oh, and if all that wasn’t enough food for you, it is also served with a side of crispy browned Home Fries. So whether you’re like Lemuel Benedict and need a cure for a night of bad decisions or if you just have a hankering for some soul satisfying breakfast/brunch food, the Eggs Chesapeake at the Lake Effect is the call. Just make sure to pencil in a nice nap after to complete the whole experience. 

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