It's Time To Put "The Slut" Back in Breakfast: Eggslut Los Angeles

Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers:

About a month ago, I was in Los Angeles for a five day weekend to see several events at the 2014 spring Paley Fest.    Since I used to live in Hollywood, I had wanted to stop at many of my favorite eateries.  Because of this, I really didn't do any research on new restaurants.  Because I was poor as a church mouse on a budget when I lived in Hollywood, most of my favorite eateries are very inexpensive ones.

I do still subscribe to Los Angeles magazine … and perhaps that is how I first heard of Eggslut.

Yes, that's not a typo.  Eggslut.  Egg plus slut equals Eggslut.

From what I have heard, once upon a time there was a food truck called Eggslut.  They served breakfast sandwiches and a dish called "The Slut."  This dish became so popular (as many sluts tend to be), that the owners were able to set up a small diner-style stand at the downtown Los Angeles Grand Central Market.

When I used to live in Hollywood, I roamed the city pretty freely.  However I will admit that I didn't spend a lot of time in downtown Los Angeles.  Even bright and early on a weekend morning, downtown was a little more seedy than I would like to deal with on a normal basis.  (And this coming from someone who lived next to an alley where the transvestite hookers would turn tricks.)  There is parking at the Grand Central Market, but Lord if I could find it!  I ended up at a paid parking lot down the street from the Angel's Flight funicular.  

As I got out of my rocking Ford Fiesta rental (Don't judge!  I'm not made of money!), I handed the parking attendant some money.  Three men were walking along the sidewalk.  They all looked at me and one yelled out:  "SHE'S SELLING DRUGS!  SHE'S SELLING DRUGS!"  

Probably because of lack of caffeine and abundance of stupidity, I yelled back:  "NOT TODAY!"  The parking attendant didn't even blink.  

(Is it any wonder that I have two posts where I emphatically state that I am not an urban drug lord?  Check them out here and here.)  

I walked a couple blocks over to the Grand Central Market and oohed and ahhed over the inexpensive produce.  I forgot how cheap produce is at the markets in Los Angeles.  I wanted to buy a bunch of ingredients and make something spectacular at my rented studio sublet, but I knew I was too lazy to actually cook while on vacation.

I scanned across the stalls for Eggslut.  I finally spotted it on the other side of the market.  I had heard that Eggslut is very popular and can have very long lines.  There were "only" about 12 people ahead of me ("waiting on the slut"), so I figured that was not too bad.

By now you may be asking yourself, "WHAT IS THE SLUT?" A very good question!  Eggslut is primarily famous for two menu items - The Fairfax and The Slut.  Although their egg-topped hamburger is quickly earning its own large fan base too.

The Fairfax is a breakfast sandwich on a brioche bun.  It is filled with soft scrambled organic eggs, fresh chives, cheddar cheese, caramelized onions and tangy Sriracha mayonnaise. The eggs are so soft and fluffy, it's like eating a spicy, oniony cloud.  It is beyond delicious.  I have never had eggs this soft, ever.  It was like a feat of nature.

Another popular breakfast sandwich is Eggslut's Bacon Egg and Cheese on a Brioche Bun (pictured below).  It has an over easy egg and chipotle ketchup.  Between the chipotle ketchup and the thick, hardwood smoked bacon - this is a smoky, delicious taste sensation.

The brioche buns are firm enough to handle the large, packed sandwiches but light and delicate enough to give a sweet fluffy taste without overpowering.  In other words, the perfect bread for this sandwich.

Because I am a hedonistic glutton, I wish that Eggslut would serve a sandwich called "The Fairfax Slut" that combines the best of the Fairfax with the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. It would be fluffy scrambled eggs, chives, bacon, cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, sriracha mayo and chipotle ketchup.  And probably a coronary, but hey it would be a tasty way to go!

But the focus of this post was not supposed to be breakfast sandwiches, now was it?  We were talking about sluts, right?  The Eggslut's signature item "The Slut" is …

Eggslut's "The Slut"

A small glass jar that is filled with the creamiest, dreamiest, silkiest potato puree.  An egg is cracked on top and is "coddled" lightly - the glass jar is put in a hot water bath to cook the egg.  It's somewhat like poaching the egg but the egg itself is never in direct contact with the water.  The soft-yolked coddled egg/potato puree is then served with buttered crostini.  

You can polk the soft egg yolk to flood the potato puree below with yolky, custardy goodness.  You then spoon out the mixture, spread it on the crunchy crostini and you have slutty egg heaven.  

I have read some reviews that said there was too much potato puree in comparison to the amount of egg.  I love potatoes in all forms, but I did agree.  Not enough egg to balance out that much potato puree.  I still ate it anyway!  If your worst problem is that you have too much delicious potato puree, your life is still pretty spectacular.  

I loved "The Slut."  The hot yolky goodness on the silky smooth potato puree was like slipping along satin sheets under the air conditioning on a balmy summer day.  My only complaint was that the potato puree was salty and so was the crostini, so that when I ate the two together it was double salty.  I'm not sure if "The Slut" is always this salty or if I just happened to have a chef that was gung ho on the seasoning that day.  I'd like to go back and check it out.

I love breakfast food.  Sitting at a table amongst the food stands at the downtown Los Angeles Grand Central Market was tranquil and homey.  I felt like the noisy world around me faded from view and it was just me, a girl and her slutty egg having a peaceful breakfast.

If you are in or visiting Los Angeles, I highly recommend you get your promiscuous egg-loving nature on and visit Eggslut.  Your tastebuds will be glad you did!  

P.S.  After writing this post, I was craving eggs.  I wonder why?  I made a breakfast sandwich for dinner - fried soft-yolked egg, slice of Canadian bacon on a whole wheat English muffin.  It was OK, but it was definitely no Eggslut.  Sigh.   I wonder if Eggslut delivers to Florida?        

Day 2: World Record-Breaking Food Truck Rally - Nine More Food Trucks Get In My Belly!

Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers:

Happy Friday!  Last weekend, we went to a two day Food Truck Rally.  I posted Day One right away to give some recommendations for people attending Day Two of the event.  However after that, I fell into a food coma and kept saying "Um yeah I'll post Day Two … eventually."

Eventually is NOW!

Enough procrastinating, here is my Day Two of the World Record-Breaking Food Truck Rally post!  Yay!

(If you haven't read the Day One post, check it out first here.)

When I posted "Day 1" information and pictures, I rushed through the writing because I had an hour before I had to run to a volunteering event.  Because of this, I left out some of the back story on the event … so allow me to correct that oversight here.

Tampa may not be the most cutting edge city in the country, but I feel like we have really embraced and welcomed food trucks.  Now I'm not a food truck owner, so maybe it's really a cut-throat, dog-eat-dog world that I am not aware of (maybe a new TV show idea?) … but as someone who loves going out and trying quality food, I love that Tampa Bay always seems to have a plethora of food truck events.

Now in 2013, Miami held a food truck rally that was apparently world-record breaking in number of food trucks.  From what I gather, our local "Generation Food Truck" group (Facebook, Twitter) which runs (or is also affiliated with) the "Not Your Ordinary Food Truck," decided that Tampa Bay should break that record.  And with that, their team set out to do just that.  And they did!  

With their 100 food truck rally - they expected 8,000 people and had 30,000.  It was an amazing event.  Even with long lines, we were able to try four different trucks (going with a group of people was a good idea - divide and conquer!)  

We had a great day and when we soon heard afterward that Generation Food Truck was now going to attempt a 200 Food Truck Rally and had a sponsor bringing in the Guinness World Record committee to certify the new World Record, we knew we had to be there!

So yes - this food truck event has been on our calendars for seven months - we are devoted food truck fans!  Don't judge!

Now the owner of Generation Food Truck is a colorful character and outspoken.  He may rub some people the wrong way, but he gets attention and actually does what he sets out to accomplish.  So you have to respect that!  He put on an event that has helped many small business owners.  It invigorates the community.  It generates tourism (many people we met at the 200 Food Truck Rally drove 2-6 hours to attend the event).  It promotes a positive image of the food truck industry and their hard-working owner/operators.  

The amount of work Generation Food Truck has done in a relatively short amount of time is astounding.  If more small business leaders thought this big and then DELIVERED this big, imagine how strong our economy could get?  It's inspirational!

OK so enough about the back story, let's talk about the food on Day Two!

Now if you read Day One's post, which hopefully you did … you'll know that we suffered through torrential rain to go to the event.  Well Day Two was a GIFT!  Sunny, warm, just beautiful!

We were sad to realize that not all the food trucks from Day One were there on Day Two - which was unfortunate not only for our stomachs but I have to imagine the trucks made a lot more money on sunny Day Two than rainy Day One.  For the out of town food trucks who were not able to also be there for Day Two, I hope you come back and visit Tampa!  

We were especially sad that South Florida's Hip Pops and Tampa's Mobile Munchiez were not there for Day Two!  At least with Mobile Munchiez we can see them at other events, but we may have to do a Hip Pops road trip when the first In-N-Out Burger opens in Miami (which by the way, does anyone know when in 2014 that is??)

Now before I start telling you about the food we ate on Day Two, I have to say that some of my friends (and Twitter follower reactions) were in HORROR at how much food we tried.  All I can say is - listen people, I ate light the week before the event, worked out, tasted but didn't finish most of what we ordered and then ate light afterward.  I am 2 pounds lighter than before I went to the event, so keep your food-phobic comments on the back burner!  The memories I am taking from this event are in my head, not on my hips!  

Our first food truck was: Gainesville's Humble Pie Wood Fired Pizza.  

My friend had the Granny Smith apple - walnut pizza.  It was DELICIOUS!  I didn't get to snap a picture of it because I was in line at food truck #2, so here is a crooked picture of my laptop screen of the picture on my friend's Instagram page-- sure I could have asked her to email me the pic, but why be logical?     

Humble Pie Granny Smith Apple and Walnut Pizza

This pizza normally is also topped with bleu cheese crumbles, but my friend asked for them to be left off.  I love a good thin crust, wood fired pizza.  The quality of pizza you can get from an oven on a cart outdoors - holy cow, this was good!  The apple was cooked perfectly - thin slices with lots of flavor, not too crisp and not too mushy.  Perfection!  

Humble Pie was so good that I may need to schedule a road trip to Gainesville!

Our second food truck had my most favorite food of the entire two day 200 Food Truck Rally - the Bison Burger Egg Roll from Tampa's own Ninja Noms Eggrolls.

Bison Burger Eggroll with the freshest side salad!

First, I have to say there is a gorgeous guy who works this food truck who looks like Louis Maldonado - a Chef-contestant from Top Chef.  So this truck wins the beauty contest!  He was so good-looking, I seriously just considered ordering everything off the Ninja Noms menu and forgetting all other food trucks!

I couldn't believe how good and fresh-looking the food was - talk about gourmet.  I pointed at the side salad and said "Look I am eating healthy!"  

Why was this dish my favorite?  It tasted like the best cheeseburger ever - in an egg roll.  Apparently they use some sort of air fryer, so the egg roll was hot & crispy without being greasy or worse, greasy-tasting.  It came with a mayonnaise-style dipping sauce, that I didn't think it needed.  The Napa cabbage-cucumber-red cabbage side salad had a tart vinaigrette that I really enjoyed.  I could eat that salad every day for the rest of my life.  For the record, this is the only dish I completely finished (OK a couple pieces of red cabbage were left) the entire day.  It was SO GOOD.

On to Food Truck #3!  Jacksonville's "Pink Cupcake" food truck.  

Pink Cupcake had the cutest little girl named Julianna working the truck.  She was probably no more than 6.  I would have loved to have posted her picture, but unfortunately in this day and age - probably not wise and she's not my child, so … but she was just freaking adorable.  Even if the cupcakes were awful, I would have bought something from her!  She wins the "child beauty pageant" at this event!  

French Toast Cupcake

My friend had her eye on the French Toast Cupcake.  She said it was so good, I couldn't even grab a bite before it was gone!  We actually went to this truck twice!  We left the event with cupcakes to go, because their cupcakes were so moist and delicious.  Their Butterfinger cupcake would make a person cry it looked so good!  

Food Truck #4:  Valrico's Cake Bus food truck.  

Since I couldn't get a bite of the French Toast cupcake, this toddler is going to get her own!  And it's going to be a CHICKEN AND WAFFLE CUPCAKE.  Oh yeah baby, you heard me!  Look at this gorgeous creature:

Chicken & Waffle Cupcake

A fluffy light cupcake that tasted like a malt waffle, with a maple syrup-tasting butter cream frosting, the crunchiest but still "chewy like a waffle" mini waffle, a crunchy yet juicy chicken tender piece - and the whole thing drizzled with syrup.  It may sound nasty but it was CRAZY DELICIOUS.  I ate the chicken separately but the rest I ate up together.  At my last dental visit, the dental assistant told me I have a small mouth.  Which surprised me because I have been told I have a big freaking mouth most of my life.  Ha ha!  I managed to eat this thing - not really sure how.  I wanted to gobble the whole thing up, but in my "taste everything, finish nothing" mode I only had 1/3.  But it was AWESOME.

I may become a CakeBus stalker and try the rest of their cupcakes, because if they are anything like this one - I will be in LOVE.

Food Truck #5: Lakeland's FryNSaucer!  

Listen, sometimes you just have to go for the deep fried food!  FryNSaucer has a huge bin of fresh potatoes that they use for their curly fries and ribbon fries.  The oil they use is very clean-tasting - unlike some "Fair Food" where you feel like they've been using the same oil for decades!  Plus sometimes the oil is not hot enough so you get soggy, oil-laden fries -- but not these - both the ribbon fries & the curly fries were crisp, light & tasty. 

Fresh Curly Fries and Deep Fried Strawberry Shortcake

Ribbon Fries

On a whim, we decided to also try the deep fried strawberry shortcake.  YES, YOU HEARD ME!  Deep fried strawberry shortcake!  It was like a jelly roll, dipped in batter and deep fried.  A light vanilla sponge cake with the artificial tasting strawberry gel inside.  We were glad we tried it, but it was not our favorite.  The fries - both curly and ribbon - were delicious though and we had to forcibly stop ourselves from eating more!

Food Truck #6 (yes SIX): Orlando's Sabai Sabai Mobile Thai food truck.

Kobe Beef Slider

Thai Street Noodles with Chicken & Kobe Beef Sliders

By this point in the game, our stomachs were starting to say "um, what's up?"  But we pressed on.  My friend had the Thai Street Noodles with Chicken.  She found them a little greasy, but I thought they were pretty authentic - as a person who has had street noodles in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Japan, Hong Kong and Macau!  The Kobe Beef sliders were decent but really could have used a nice sauce and maybe a slice of cucumber.  I'd definitely try more of Sabai Sabai's food in the future.  

I stole my friend's noodles and they were my dinner for The Walking Dead season finale!

Food Truck #7: After filling our bellies with some protein, it was time to hit the deep-fried end of the spectrum AGAIN with Lake Worth's Fry Daddy food truck!

Deep-fried Oreos and Deep-fried rice krispy treat

The interior of a deep-fried rice krispy treat 

Hello deep fried oreo

Fry Daddy has a menu that will make any fried food lover weep with appreciation.  My friend had never tried deep fried oreos, so she was in for those.  I just had to see what a deep fried rice krispy bar tasted like.  I had had deep fried oreos once at a Tampa restaurant I will not name.  They were gushy and gross.  But the one from Fry Daddy was excellent - big fluffy batter with a still somewhat crunchy Oreo.  It needed some whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce - because hey, I don't think it has enough calories!

The deep fried rice krispy bar was interesting - the cereal was still somewhat crunchy and you heard that snap, crackle, pop!  It was a nice flavor with melted marshmallow.  I probably wouldn't get this again, but it was cool to try.

Food Truck #8:  Clermont's "The Whip" Food truck- 40+ flavors of custom blended soft serve ice cream!  

When you are one truck at a 200 Food Truck Rally - putting something memorable on top of your truck is a great way for people to find you.  We had made many laps around the fairgrounds to try to burn off calories in-between eating, so when we decided to go back to The Whip all we had to do was spot the truck in the distance that had the happy little ghost on it!  

Custom blended root beer soft serve ice cream

My friend had the root beer flavor soft serve ice cream.  She enjoyed it but said she would have liked a little stronger root beer flavor.  The Whip had all these amazing flavors I would have loved to try, but my heart was set on Hawaiian Shave Ice from our next truck ...

Last but NOT least … Food Truck #9: Belleaire Bluffs' Lolo Ono Hawaiian Shave Ice. 

For the record I did not visit this food truck because I used to have the best cat ever who was named Lo Lo - just a happy coincidence.

I love proper Hawaiian shave ice - where the ice tastes almost like powdered snow.  The syrups taste fresh and not chemical-like.  And the hidden inner center of ice cream is fresh-tasting not gooey with chemical thickeners.  I have been to Hawaii many times and I have high standards for shave ice!  Lolo Ono's shave ice tasted very authentic and their food truck is super cute!

Believe it or not - this is the small shave ice!

Inner center of vanilla ice cream

I chose the "Sunset" flavor which is mango and strawberry.  There are three flavor stripes on the shave ice - 2 mango and 1 strawberry - I would have preferred 2 strawberry and 1 mango, but other than that - this was pretty much the perfect ending for our 200 Food Truck weekend!

Secret Food Truck #10 - As I stated before, we actually made a 10th spot - back to our Food Truck #3 - Jacksonville's Pink Cupcake- to get cupcakes to go.  

I bought a French Toast cupcake (because my friend doesn't know how to share! Ha ha - kidding!)  I devoured this 2 seconds in to the finale of The Walking Dead.

Whereas my friend took a selection.  She's skinnier than me and has impulse control.  If I had bought more than 1 cupcake I would have eaten them all while watching zombies eat people.  I own my lack of impulse control!

Other friends raved about the jambalaya at the King Creole food truck that came from North Carolina to be part of the rally.  I never got a chance to try the wine ice cream from Rochester, New York's Wine Not food truck - but maybe next time I am in Western New York - as I have friends in Buffalo, Rochester & Syracuse.

It was a fun day of eating!  We did a few more laps to try to digest and burn off some calories.  I would have loved to stay longer because it was a gorgeous day with lots of people, but my Food Truck pal and I both had afternoon & evening commitments - so off we left with Happy Bellies!

Thanks Generation Food Truck, your sponsors & all the vendors who made the world record-breaking 200 Food Truck Rally a big success!  We can't wait to see what you do to top this one!  I'll start dieting now in anticipation!    

RAIN WON'T STOP US! Food Truck Recommendations for the World Record-Breaking 200 Food Truck Rally

Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers:

I have been eating light all week, so even though we heard it would be most likely raining the first day of the two day 200 Food Truck Rally - I was NOT going to let that stop me!  Luckily my Food Truck loving friend felt the same way!

First, a little annoyed because all the publicity for the past MONTHS for the event said it started at 11 a.m. on Saturday.  So I didn't double-check the times released in the newspaper yesterday.  Um yeah they changed the time to Noon.  So we got to sit at the Fairgrounds - when it was NOT raining - for over an hour before the gates opened.  Two seconds after we walked through the gates, it started raining.  Such is life!  

We weren't going to let a little water stop us from enjoying the day!  Plus there were covered beer tents and a covered band tent plus the shelter of the expo hall with plenty of tables to enjoy your food.  Rain or shine, my stomach was ready for some good eats!

As you may know from previous posts giving "tater tot duels", I love a good TATER TOT.  (See my posts:  Dueling Tater Tots and Tater Tot Duel: The Sequel.)  So we had decided to first hit the "Hott Mess" truck as our very first food truck of the 200 Food Truck rally.  And those smart food truckers at Hott Mess, they had tweeted where they were located in the fairgrounds so we were able to find them FAST!  (Thank you for that!)  

We went up and ordered an original "Hott Mess" and a Buffalo chicken Hott Mess.  I gave my name "Lily" with the order and a gentleman who I am 98.9% sure was the Hott Mess Food Truck Owner said "My wife wants to know if you are @SouthTampaLily from Twitter."  

I'M FAMOUS!  

Outed at the Fairgrounds!  Shush, don't tell the paparazzi!  "Yes, yes I am @SouthTampaLily - NOW GIVE ME MY TOTS!"  OK maybe I didn't say that second part.  ;-)

Hot Mess Menu

Whether you are a Hott Mess or not, these TOTS are good!

Buffalo Chicken Hott Mess and the Original Hott Mess- yes, that's BACON!

Both tater tot dishes were fabulous but the Buffalo Chicken was my absolute favorite!

Next to the Betty Rocker food truck - bourbon bacon brownie and the "Lunchbox" special - vanilla cake with peanut butter, jelly and a Dorito (yes Doritos tortilla chips!)  My friend and I both unfortunately did NOT like the bourbon bacon brownie - dry brownie, rubbery bacon bits inside and to me it tasted like cough syrup.  Sorry!  But we LOVED the Lunchbox special - it was like all the best parts of grade school in a cupcake.  Delicious!

Get the Lunchbox special - how often do you have a Dorito in your cupcake?

Next it was on to The Big Cheese Food truck.  Which I swear was hiding - we kept saying "Big Cheese!  Big Cheese!  Where are you?"  Finally we found it on the other side from where we started.  You are NOT hiding from us, Big Cheese!

My friend had the pizza grilled cheese which had these thin, savory, non greasy discs of pepperoni that were to die for!  I took a big piece out of my friend's sandwich and chowed down!  Hey, what are friends for?  I liked their POUTINE specials (so delicious looking, had to put it all in caps), the Mac and Cheese Pork grilled cheese and the make your own grilled cheese selections.  Yum, yum, yum!

Pepperoni Grilled Cheese!

Then on to the truck I was really looking forward to - The Twisted Iron.  I had their chicken & waffle.  My friend had the S'mores waffle bites.  DELICIOUS.  The chicken was crispy, juicy, fresh and flavorful.  The waffle was dense and held up to the chicken.  The waffle bites were slathered in chocolate and marshmallow sauce - a gigantic decadent mass of s'mores delight - you need like 4-6 friends for this naughty dessert!

The Twisted Iron Food Truck

Chicken & Waffle with Maple Syrup and Honey Mustard - delicious!

S'mores Waffle Bites with Graham bits, Chocolate & Marshmallow Sauce

The rain and the winds started picking up harder, so we ate our Twisted Iron delights in the shelter of the Expo Hall.  Rain was NOT going to stop us from trying as many of the great food trucks at the 200 Food Truck Rally that we could!  

Luckily it is a two day event - tomorrow we want to try and check out:

- Disco Donuts - a local Tampa Bay DELICIOUS institution

- PAO food truck - Filipino food truck - their pancit noodles are the bomb!

- Heart & Seoul - 100% vegan Korean food truck -where else can you get Vegan Bulgogi?

- Fry Daddy - they have deep fried Oreos, Snickers, Twinkies and Rice Krispy Treats!

- Ninja Noms gourmet eggrolls - we are DEFINITELY having these!

- Mobile Munchiez - little stuffed rice balls are calling out your name!  It's Latin-American-Italian fusion and they have pictures of Jimmy Smits and Edward James Olmos in the window of their truck!  That alone seals the deal!

- Cake Bus - A CHICKEN & WAFFLE CUPCAKE - yes, you heard me!

Cake Bus Food Truck

- Wine Not from Western NY and their wine slushies and ice cream!  I lived in Buffalo for three years - I need some wine ice cream to make me forget all the snowstorms I lived through!

There are TWO Wine Not trucks at the 200 Food Truck Rally

- Hip Pops - pick a gelato popsicle, a dipper and a coating - 1-2-3-FABULOUS!

Everyone wants to be near handcrafted awesomeness!

And there are so many more great food trucks - Killer Sammich, The Dude and His Food (best food truck name EVER), London Fish & Chippy, the ultimate pizza Humble Pie Wood Fired Pizza from Gainesville, Macarollin' gourmet mac & cheese, Lolo Ono Hawaiian Shave Ice, Not Your Ordinary Food Truck ($5 for kangaroo on a stick- I had kangaroo in Cairns - it's actually pretty delicious!)  

There is also a stand that does drinks in hollowed out pineapples - I'm sorry I forgot your name - just look for the long line because they are majorly delicious and majorly popular!  Curbside Chef has a red velvet pancake skewer with a quail egg!  Come on people, that is crazy delicious sounding!  SO MANY AWESOME FOOD TRUCKS!  

The food truck rally goes through 8 p.m. Saturday March 29 and 11-6 on a much dryer, sunny Sunday March 30 at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa.  (Parking $6 for cars, $12 for larger vehicles.  No cover charge to attend the Food Truck Rally).  I really hope you check it out.  The food is great, supporting small businesses is great - it's just a Happy Belly Awesome time!

One of the BEST Crab Cake Eggs Benedict in Los Angeles!

Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers:

I was very excited when I got on the scale this morning!  I not only shed the Los Angeles weight (where I was sight-seeing via my stomach) from the weekend before last but I am now LIGHTER than I was when I went to Los Angeles.  The reason I am so excited about this is because I ate A LOT in Los Angeles.  A LOT.  A lot a lot!  All my Los Angeles junk food favorites - and even banana cream pie (TWICE).  Probably a month of calories in one long weekend!  Yikes!  

Since I returned to Tampa from Los Angeles, I have been eating light and continuing to be more active.  I knew I had to get the added LA weight off because this weekend is the two day "World Record Breaking Two Hundred Food Truck Rally."  And I plan on sampling several of those two hundred food trucks!  If you're not from Tampa, you may not be aware that our local "Generation Food Truck" broke the world record for coordinating the largest food truck rally last year with 100 food trucks.  

It was a great event and very popular - with many of the trucks running out of food many times (and then restocking) during the day.  My friend had dinner from the Mayan Grill food truck.  It had broken down on the highway driving to Tampa for the event.  Mayan Grill was towed to the Florida State Fairgrounds so that they could still participate in the event.  Their food was very popular, so I am glad they didn't give up when their truck broke down!    

I appreciated that we could support local and regional small businesses while stuffing our stomachs- and I am looking forward to attending again!  It was a great event and I know the Two Hundred Food Truck Rally will be even better.  The bands at the last event were especially good as well.  Food, music and a lot of happy people - what's not to love?  My Food Truck partner in crime and I will be there both days.  Needless to say this will be a light, healthy eating week before the event!

But enough about healthy eating, because the rest of this post is devoted to the BEST Crab Cake Eggs Benedict I have had ever.  (And trust me, I have had a lot of crab cake eggs benedict entrees over the years!)

First, I have to say that whenever I go to Brunch or Breakfast I give the "Denny's" whine.  I feel like restaurants like Denny's, IHOP, Village Inn, etc. have spoiled me for all breakfast joints.  This is because I like sweet and savory.  I want eggs, pancakes, bacon.  Menus that have entrees that are either savory or sweet but no entree that contains both make me sad.  Luckily my breakfast companions are of similar mindset, so we usually end up ordering three entrees and sharing a waffle, pancakes, French toast, cinnamon roll or some other "sweet" menu item.  Hey, I'm an American - I want it ALL.  Why should I be limited to sweet or savory?

However, if I have to choose between sweet or savory; I will choose savory because I feel satisfied longer if my meals have protein in it.  A sugary entree will burn through me in 2 seconds flat.  An hour later I'll be wanting to eat something else.  And since my metabolism has the speed of a turtle with no legs, loading myself up with a lot of calories is never a good idea.

Not only do I love both sweet and savory, I also love all breakfast foods in general, so it can be incredible hard to choose just one item!  I love a good spinach-mushroom frittata, eggs Florentine, anything with bacon, a rich pastry like pain au chocolat or a croissant … ohhh so much deliciousness!

However, if there is a crab cake eggs benedict on a restaurant breakfast/brunch menu, chances are I will be ordering it.  In fact, I really really really wanted to order it at The Living Room on Main in Dunedin, Florida when "Mrs. Business" and I went out to brunch.  But we were both eating relatively healthy so I went with 2 poached eggs … with hash browns … because I'm not Mother Teresa after all.  I had this instead of their Blue Crab Eggs Benedict (two poached eggs over lump crab meat, applewood smoked bacon, Brie cheese, dill Hollandaise on white cheddar biscuits.  Sigh - sounds like heaven.)

But when I was in Los Angeles, it was no holds barred for my stomach.  I gave myself free reign to eat whatever I wanted.  It was unseasonably warm when I was in LA, so on the hottest day of the long weekend I chose to go to The Getty Center because I could spend part of the day out doors and whenever I became over-heated I could pop in to the many air-conditioned art galleries.  I will write a blog post about my entire day at The Getty at a later date, but for now I will focus on their Crab Cake Eggs Benedict.  The Getty has three eating options - a restaurant, a cafe and a light terrace food cart.  The restaurant has amazing views.  But the view I was taking in was this …

The Crab Cake Eggs Benedict from the restaurant at The Getty Center

This eggs benedict has EVERYTHING -- spinach, mushrooms, bacon, crab cakes and served on a croissant!  Instead of Hollandaise sauce, it has choron sauce.  Do you know what choron sauce is?  Because I sure didn't.  Evidently choron sauce is Bearnaise sauce mixed with tomato paste.  The Getty's choron sauce had a wonderful smoky, sun dried quality - I am pretty sure they were not using good old generic tomato paste for this sauce.

The spinach and mushrooms were so fresh - I loved that I felt like I was having eggs Florentine as well as my favorite Crab Cake Eggs Benedict.  The bacon was from Nueske's - which is my favorite bacon!  The crab cakes were mostly crab with minimal filler - also top notch in Lily's book!

My "calorie saving" tip when I eat a rich dish like Crab Cake Eggs Benedict is that I usually never eat the "bread base" - whether it is English muffins, biscuits, a croissant, etc.  However for the sake of "culinary journalism," I did take a bite of the croissant to be able to write about it here.  (You're welcome readers, I am doing it all for you!)

The croissant was very rich and very buttery.  To me it was over the top because the rest of the dish was very rich.  But I guess if you're committing to eat an extravagant dish, you might as well go all the way.  I would have preferred a less buttery bread product - but hey I don't usually eat it anyway, so who cares?

The eggs were poached perfectly - no watery mess like other restaurants who fail to drain the eggs properly.  This Crab Cake Eggs Benedict was absolutely incredible.  But since I started with a rich appetizer (more about THAT later), I only had room for one of the two Eggs Benedict pieces.  And even with that I felt like I was waddling the rest of the day.  This is definitely not the dieter's special!

So if you're in Los Angeles and love good brunch, definitely make a stop at the Getty Center Restaurant a must on your list.  I would recommend making a reservation because it is quite popular.

Where is your favorite crab cake or other type of Eggs Benedict?  Please share in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!