Follow-Up on Eggs, Humor

[cabrales]

I'd appreciate learning what egg dishes (non-dessert) sampled at a restaurant (whether or not in the DC area) have been particularly memorable for you.

In addition, your input on when humor can play a significant role in a dish (with any available examples) would be of considerable interest to me.  

Memorable egg dishes… hmmm. Calling Dr. Freud! Anna or Sigmund. What would it mean to you if I said “Over easy with bacon”?

Humor in dishes? Like what? A sailor’s hat on a softshell crab? Little Barbie high heels on the frenched lamb chops? Oh,  I’ve got it: a smiley face in brown sugar on the crème brulee!

Jeanne -- On egg dishes, I was thinking of a dish along the lines of (1) the "coque-mouillettes" offered as an amuse-bouche at M Bras in Laguiole, (2) the "chaud-froid d'oeuf" (with maple syrup, sherry vinegar and chives) offered as an amuse-bouche at L'Arpege in Paris, or (3) the liquid with egg (typically with jasmine) served in an egg shell to end a meal at L'Astrance in Paris (sometimes with another egg shell containing a flickering little candle).

http://www.michel-bras.fr/anglais/cuisine/...expre-coque.htm

On humor, here are some examples: (1) T Keller's dishes and their names (e.g., "macaroni and cheese", "oysters and pearls"), (2) the foie gras bonbons at the Pourcels' Jardin des Sens at Montpellier (which have a concentric-circle-like swirl of burgundy-colored sauce resembling a bulls'-eye), (3) the inclusion in the db bistro moderne burger of bits of braised short ribs, which are reminiscent of Boulud's short ribs at sibling restaurant Daniel, and (4) as other members on the board have mentioned, the use as garnishes in a dish of ingredients with which an animal/fish was associated during its life (e.g., turbot cooked in a salt crust, wild boar with chestnuts).

I hope the above helps clarify the egg/humor question.  

[Jeanne McManus]

That DOES help, thanks. I've had oysters and pearls and macaroni and cheese by Keller. They were out of this world, of the planet. Would I have felt differently if they had different names, no. But I think someone like Thomas Keller and the others you mention can pull it off. But please I can't stand too many cutesy things on the menu.

Egg dishes... I've been living the wrong life. Those all sound great. I've been settling for over easy with bacon at the Tastee Diner. In my next life, I'll come back and have all those egg dishes you mention. (I have low cholesterol in this life.)

[Steve Klc]

Jeanne--did you happen to have that amuse of a very lightly cooked quail egg in toast, on a spoon, with a pinch of sea salt by Jose Andres? That might interest Cabrales!

[Jeanne McManus]

No, but I'll try that. And at the Inn at Little Washington I just had deviled eggs... quail eggs, part of the menu for the Relais Chateaux events in Paris in a few weeks.