I have already waxed lyrically about the fried egg as a premier post-pub foodstuff.

However, a recent re-watching of a classic Eighties rom-com has made me refine my recipe.  The movie in question is Moonstruck.  The scene is one where Olympia Dukakis in her role as Rose Castorini is cooking breakfast for her daughter Loretta Castorini played by Cher in their Brooklyn Heights home.  In the scene, Olympia Dukakis cracks her egg over a piece of bread already frying in the pan, which, crucially, has a hole cut in the centre of it.  This hole very neatly accommodates the yolk of the egg, whilst allowing the white to settle on the bread itself.

WTF!

This leaven excavation of the bread makes it look like the kind of thing that is left over in the back garden when a pigeon has got at it; I have always admired the pigeon’s connoisseur way of eating the centre of a slice of bread, whilst leaving behind the crust, creating a doughy necklace in the process.

Who cooks their fried eggs like this?  Reference the internet and, apparently, lots of people.  ‘Egg in a Hole’ appears to be quite a common phenomenon and not one solely confined to Hollywood make-believe.

I decided to give it a go and, I must admit, it has certain benefits.  The white of the egg cooks; whilst the hole in the bread keeps the yolk practically raw and runny.  One tricky moment trying to flip the entire concoction easy over, and then it is done.

For some reason peculiar to me, the finished dish brings to mind another Hollywood movie: Ghostbusters.  The violence of the splash of white across the bread makes me think of a ghost, which has attempted to run through a brick wall and failed.  But this is where the post-pub mind will roam.  Sometimes best to leave it to its own imagination without further explanation.

© Beery Sue

Beery Sue often finds herself mistaken for Cher.