An Amuse-Bouche

Photo by Melissa Goldthwaite/Food styling by Howard DininThis Thursday (September 25), I'll be joining a panel of fabulously talented writers at New York University (Fales Library and Special Collections, 70 Washington Square South, 6 p.m.).  We'll celebrate the relationship between literature and food, and the release of Books That Cook: The Making of a Literary Meal.  If you happen to be in the big city, please drop by for some gustatory and literary delights.

In the meantime, to whet your appetite, here is a selection from Books That Cook by poet/photographer Howard Dinin.  If you follow its instructions, you too may enjoy the perfect fried egg sandwich.


Making the Perfect Fried Egg Sandwich
dedicated to (n-1)
One egg.The mammoth chicken gamete.Primary color: yellow. Unary.Pre-packaged,Ingenious.Andbiodegradable.
Dust to dust. A sustainer.Life itselfand contained in thata death.Not a paradox:a meal, even for the dying.Indeed, a preferred repast.
It may be the simplicity.The sustenancein so many dimensions.A perfect food.Life.
Here’s the recipe,the one the dying prefer.There’s that one egg,and butter.That’s it:one egg,one lump of butter,walnut-sized,sweet, mind.Let the one dying add the salt.
The trick,the cooking secret?Frame of mind.
Think French.The French for eggrequires three vowels,the eggs of the alphabet.
The vowels open sounds,throat and gullet unconstricted.You can’t say “egg”and swallow one at once.
You can in French.
One consonant,and those French:they don’t pronounce it,but barely, a puff of airbetween open lips, therejust to hold the wordtogether. The packaging.An eggshell.
Think, consonantwith life.
Think Frenchfor speed,or rather pace.The perfect fried eggtakes time.We all,not just the dying,have so little.
You must take your time.Haste is dissonant.
Consider this.Perfect meansno flaws.Ovum? Perfect, no?
ContinuityOpen vowel soundsOpen throatNo constrictions.No velar stops.No looking at the clock.
Ovoid. Use a panwith curving sides.Curves, mind.Not slopes,no crevices.Here’s a memory tip.Curves are feminine;it’s all one:the egg the female cell.
You need a cup,small,ovoid. An espresso cup.French, remember?
Crack the shell,and separate itintimate as you pleasejust above the cup.Glides right in.Just fits.Let it sit.And while you’re at itlet the butter sit.
The unary thing,all one temperatureto start, once you start.No hurry.
And for cooking,keep it low to keep it slow,the heata low flame, enoughto melt the butter.Sufficiency.No more, no less.French.
Let the butter liquefytill it’s albumen clear,no color.The only color is the yolk.
Swirl the pangently,let the butter lapthe sides.Then once it pools,hold the cupabove the surface,intimate as you please,and tip the cup,slowly please,and slide the egg out.
So far, all lubricity.
Slow.Open.Lubricious.
Just as the albumen sets,gently, please,swirl the panso the egg slides free.The flame stays low,no browning,the white stays whiteto the end.
Now gently as you please,and intimate,you should have the hang of itby now,spoonthe fat to top the yolk.
Repeat.Repeat.Repeat.
Slowly.
Watch the pan, and dropone slice,two?of breadinto the toaster.What does the dying dinerwant?Open-face?Or classic, something to takein the hands?
I’ll remind you again.No browning.While the bread toasts,spoon more fatto top the yolk.
Repeat.Repeat.
No browning.Don’t hurry now,so close to being done.No short-ordersfor the dying.
And when the toast pops,plate one slice for sure.
Kill the flameand swirl the pan.Make sure the egg is freeto glide around.
Now here’s the tricky part.Simple, but you’ll needdexterity,and a very thinbladed spatula,which you slide beneath the egg;plate with toastas near the pan as youcan get.Slide the egg onto the toast,and leave the fat behind.
Top it with the other slice,if that’s what’s called for.
OK
Now!
Quick!
French, think French.The order’s done.
Get it to the bedroomwhere the dying dinerwaits.