I’ve long been a fan of French bistro classic salads that crown frisee lettuce with poached eggs and a warm dressing. Needless to say, I was thrilled to try the lobster salad pictured above when I was in Las Vegas a few weeks ago since it contained not only those salad elements but also lobster and lentils – two of my other favourite foods! Martin and I happened into Tableau in the Wynn Hotel around lunchtime and had a really wonderful meal. It was one of the best meals we were served in LV, to be honest.
For me the panko dusted, crispy poached egg that garnished my salad was absolutely ingenious and totally novel: light and uniformly crisp coating on the outside, creamy soft orange yolk and a firm but tender set white. It was like a crouton and an egg got married and had a salad lovin’ baby. Delish!
Although crispy poached eggs were new to me, it was only a few hours before I saw this garnish on another menu at ultra fancy Joel Robuchon. A quick Google search this morning finds these crispy little orbs of protein showing up on menus in LA (at 3 Square) and a recipe for something similar from Gourmet. I haven’t had a chance to try this technique at home yet myself but I definitely have it on my ‘to do’ list. In the meantime, I’m keeping track of how often I see crispy poached eggs (with or without panko) mentioned on menus and in recipes so that I can decide if this concept is trending up or just a blip on the food radar screen. If you’ve seen crispy poached eggs somewhere recently, please take a moment to let me know.
