I’m Cool with Poaching: Dining at Over Easy Breakfast

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants     awesome, breakfast, calgary, eating out, eggs

Ok, let me preface this review by saying: ‘How have I never had breakfast here before?!’

I think I’ve found the magic trick, aka the ‘open sesame‘, for bypassing popular breakfast diner line-ups…Obviously, I won’t tell you, this secret is too amazing to share on the internet…I will take it to my grave. Anyway, onto the food experience!

Over Easy Breakfast pretty much charms you from the second you walk in the door. Perhaps it’s the lighting fixtures that spell out ‘O.V.E.R.E.A.S.Y’, or the chaulkboard roof (yes, roof) with sayings like ‘great eggs-pectations‘, but any which way you look at it, you know that Over Easy will be (wait for it…) egg-cellent.

So, what to order? One of the pluses at this restaurant is that the menu itself is quite entertaining. Even though it wasn’t ordered, I did smile at the dish entitled: ‘The one that did not get away’ which considered of herring, eggs, egg-cetera…(ok, no more egg jokes…)

After purusing the menu, I settled on ‘Soul in a Bowl’, which was, essentially, a breakfast poutine. Having had my share of poutines (as seen in Dan’s great Calgary poutine adventure), I eagerly awaited the delivery of the dish. Served in a take-out box, which was amazingly cute, my meal consisted of herbed potatoes, cheese curds (of course), bacon, soft-poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. Needless to say, it was god damn delicious.

My friend opted for the ‘Uova alla Toscana’, a dish involving poached eggs, rye bread, sun-dried tomatoes and smoked proscuitto, amoung other things. It was beautifully presented, and equally delicious, but (if I had to choose one flaw in this breakfast experience) there were a few too many sun-dried tomatoes on this dish. Undeniably overpowering, but the eggs were poached to perfection and the fries were delicious.

Over Easy wins on so many levels; the service was spot-on, the ambiance was fantastic, great food…I will definitely be back. Which brings me back to my initial question: ‘How have I not been here before?’

Sweet Strawberry Salsa with Brown Sugar Chips

Dan    Recipes, Something Sweet     appetizer, delicious, dessert, mint, refreshing, spring, strawberries, summer, vegetarian

What you’ll need…

Chips:

5 white medium-sized pitas (opened and quartered)

1/2 cup butter (melted)

1/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

Salsa:

3 cups strawberries (trimmed, finely cubed)

1/2 granny smith apple (finely cubed)

1 cup fresh mint (minced)

3 TBSP cane sugar

2 TBSP orange juice

1/4 TSP vanilla extract

Sick of less than wonderful spring-time weather? So am I. Making this sweet (both literally and figuratively) strawberry salsa will enable you to go on a mental tropical getaway. If the weather happens to drastically change while you’re prepping this dish, then I would say this dessert version of chips and salsa are best enjoyed outside…with BBQ’ed anything.

For the chips…start off by preheating your oven to 40 degrees. In a small bowl, combine melted butter and brown sugar. Using a pastry brush, apply brown sugar/butter mixture to each pita ‘chip’. Lay out chips evenly on couple of prepared baking sheets and bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the chips turn golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

For the salsa…combine all ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Toss until everything is evenly mixed and the cane sugar has dissolved. As with any salsa, if you give it some time to sit, chill, and flavour intermingle, it will taste that much better. I left the strawberry salsa in the fridge for 45 minutes before serving, longer probably would have been a bit better. Whatever time allows. (Hey, it’s your fake tropical vacation, right?)

Serve this up the same way you would serve standard-issue chips and salsa. Best digested with a mojito in-hand. Sounds like summer to me! Bring on the sun!

Serves 4-5

Total cook time…1 hour (or so)

Honey Roasted Radishes

Dan    Appetizers & Co., Recipes     fresh, quick and easy, radishes, roasted, summer, vegetarian

What you’ll need…

3 cups of radishes (trimmed and halved)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1 TBSP balsamic vinegar

1 TBSP honey

olive oil

salt and pepper

Once I started chowing down on these little guys, I thought to myself: ‘Why the hell have you never eaten roasted radishes before? I had a similar wake-up call-esque experience when trying celery root for the first time about six months ago. (I know, right?)

Anyway, these roasted radishes are absolutely delicious, being super quick and easy to boot. They also scream ‘summer’ on the plate, which is encouraging considering my city’s (Calgary’s) lack of warm weather this spring…

Alright, let’s get right to it! Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Combine radishes and garlic in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Pour in the balsamic vinegar, honey, and drizzle with some olive oil. Toss to until radishes are coated evenly. Place into a small baking dish, cover (if using tin foil, shiny side in!), and roast in the oven for 15 minutes.

At 15 minutes, uncover, stir, and place back into the oven. Turn to high broil and let radishes cook for another 5-8 minutes, or until they start to caramelize. Remove from heat and set aside to cool briefly before serving.

Trust me, these are ridiculously delicious!

Serves 4

Total cook time…25 min