"...as plate after plate of fluffy poached eggs, cartilaginous peameal, and lakes of sunshiney goo continued to pile up over time, I realized that if I don't start catalogueing these excursions in some formal manner, a great field of human knowledge would be lost. Hence, the Benedict Chronicles..."
Oh glorious day off-ness! I woke up around 8:30 figuring I'd do a Benedict chronicle to get the day started, so I googled "Danforth all-day breakfast" and pulled up a blogTO article about a place called Meggie's. It's not on the Danforth, but what really got my attention was the picture: it clearly displays a gravy boat of hollandaise being served separately from the rest of the benedict. Sold: I rode north.
Meggie's is just a bit too far west to be called comfortable walking distance from Yonge & Eglinton, which is going to hurt it. When I arrived, there was nobody there. I mean nobody - not even a serving staff. Turned out the owner was in the back. The place has a nice tea-shoppy sort of feel, probably due to its being reno'ed from something that was decidedly not a restaurant... or maybe it was just because of the liberal use of paisley. Regardless, I took a seat by the window, cracked open The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and ordered a coffee, a water, and the eggs benedict.
Even if it were not for the sheer fetishistic glee of the do-it-yourself aspect of pouring hollandaise from the gravy boat all over your perfectly-poached eggs, this would still have been the best benny I've had in several years. I was giggling while I was eating this thing. The poached eggs were pitch-perfect globs of fluff cooked at a medium, neither too runny nor too hard, and they exploded in your mouth if you bit them just right. The peameal was flavourful and chitinous. And there was just a bit more hollandaise in the gravy boat than I actually needed, which is the way to do it.
And those fries. Holy frick. Those are the best breakfast fries I have ever had, bar none. They were light as air (probably given that they were special-ordered for me, being as that I was the only customer), the portion was flawless to compliment the two benny halves contained within, and they were just so fucking good. The fruit, too, was appreciated: I can't think of a better finish on a plate of eggs benedict than, in turn, two pieces of watermelon, one of pineapple, and two of canteloupe. Very refreshing.
The whole thing runs you $10.25, which is high for this sort of thing, but who the fuck cares: the proof is in the pudding on this one.
I hang on to this idea that the best benny I've ever had was the first time I went to Sharkey's a couple of years ago. The second time I went, not so much. I can't recall if there was a third. I've had it in my head that I need to go back there at some point to really test the mettle, especially when confronted with meals like the one I had today, but there's a lot of emotion and memory locked up in that Bloor West Village establishment, and having roused from an evening of nightmares to go write this review, I don't know if my fortitude is there yet. But it'll happen someday. Until then, we have a new champion:
Meggie's eggs benedict gets my very first four eggs out of four!!
Meggie's All-Day Breakfast is located at 174 Eglinton Ave. W., in Toronto. The Benedict Chronicles is an ongoing, non-regular series.
