#37 – EGG-IN-A-NEST at TRAIF

Once again Time Out New York released their Top 100 Dishes of the year and once again, I’m going to eat my way through every one. And no price point or subway delay will stop me. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100.

Many bloggers are amateur chefs writing about the recipes they create. I’m not that guy. I have a knack for finding great recipes and following directions to the point of making a delicious meal. And while I have plans to teach myself how to cook (ultimately without a recipe book), I’m sort of lacking in the culinary skills department. I consider myself more of an appreciator of food than a creator of it.

But one thing I can cook like nobody’s business are eggs. I know those are the easiest things to prepare aside from boiling some pasta, but I make a mean omelette.  I also get a little creative sometimes by making an egg in the hole. A fried egg inside a piece of toast has been around for ages yet I think everybody believes they were the first to have concocted it.

Traif, which is slowly becoming one of my new favorite restaurants in the city, makes what they call an Egg-in-a-Nest and if anybody should get credit for the creation of the egg and bread combination, it’s Traif Chef Jason Marcus. He doesn’t just butter two pieces of white bread, cut a hole in the center, and crack an egg through it. No, what he produces is a complex and rich brunch dish that puts all the cheese omelettes in this town to shame.

I don’t venture out to brunch too often because I sleep rather late and am not a fan of waiting in lines. But we got to Traif about 30 minutes before they closed at 3 and were able to secure a table no problem. In addition to the list item, we also tried an interesting pineapple starter, which was sliced into pieces, drizzled with pomegranate molasses and lime zest. It was a little too tart and was missing one texture component: crunch. I thought the addition of some candied crispy bacon bits would have been heavenly and would have made perfect sense at a place called Traif (meaning unkosher). We also tried the amazing Pumpkin Pancake with sweet, tart cranberries and orange zest. It was one of the best pancakes I’ve ever had in terms of fluffy texture and complex flavors.

The Egg in a Nest came with a side salad and a round bready cake that I assumed was potato. But on closer inspection, I realized this in fact was the hole from the bread. Or breads, I should say. Because what Chef Marcus does is he basically makes a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich with two slices of brioche using brie, béchamel, and some truffle cream. He stuffs the bread with some portobello mushrooms and then for good measure, tops the decadent concoction with a perfectly fried egg that easily breaks open to release its yolk.

It sounds like all these rich ingredients would be too much, but it works incredibly well. My only complaint in fact was that there wasn’t enough of all that artery clogging stuff in the main dish. However, that unassuming little bread hole on the side held all the creamy, cheesy stuffing that I hoped would be throughout the sandwich itself. It’s probably brilliant that the overflow ends up on the side rather cramming so much lusciousness into the bread, which would probably overwhelm the flavor of the egg. It was just all so good that I wanted as much of it as possible.

It only costs $9 which is an amazing deal. In fact, the entire brunch here is fairly priced and delicious. Even if I was able to cook this stuff, I’d still travel to Traif for their awesome brunch and dinner.

Would Traif’s Egg-in-a-Nest make my Top 100 of the year? It’s part of the best brunch I’ve had in a while and so for that it gets a 9 out of 10. The only problem was I wanted more intense flavors in every single bite, but that’s just a quibble when those few intense bites were incredible.