"...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..."

My father has become a devoté of the Benedict Chronicles over the last couple of months, and wanted to get in on the action. He noticed that the Homeway, a diner at Erskine & Mt. Pleasant (very near where I grew up), recently got one of those genuine, sponsored-on-TV restaurant makeovers, and now looks like the cat's pajamas. So this morning we saddled up to see what they could do with eggs benedict.

Dad ordered a couple of fried eggs over easy with a side of Mennonite ham. Mennonite ham was all over this menu (though not actually on the benedict itself), but when we asked the waiter what Mennonite ham was he just said "It's, you know, ham. From up north." Whatever. I choose to believe that genuine Mennonites were indeed directly involved in this ham and that they are excellent at it. Mennonite ham gets the job done. Not quite as enjoyable as their peaches, but I'd call it the best ham I've had in a very long time.

Meanwhile, I got the eggs benedict. And guess what? Brilliant, perfect, wonderful. I couldn't ask for more from a breakfast than this. On the menu they call it "Sinful Eggs Benedict." Cue the obvious segue: the only truly sinful thing here is just how freaking good these eggs are!

Our meal arrived in about five minutes flat which seemed a bit lean to whip up a batch of hollandaise and poach some eggs (see this entry for the dangers of quickly-prepared meals), but whatever they did in the kitchen to achieve this miracle, it worked like gangbusters. This benedict was velvety. The eggs were on the easy side of medium, the hollandaise was spare but flavourful, and the english muffin and peameal were both cooked but not to the point of crunchiness. The result was a pillowy-soft meal that went down like a good single-malt scotch. It came aligned with some of the best home fries I've ever had - salty, herby, crispy - and a decent cup of coffee.

Initially my sole complaint was that the portion size was about 20% too small. But you know what? This meal turned me around on that thinking, too. This is breakfast, people. Do you really want to come out of a breakfast full to bursting? No. You want to feel like you've eaten something substantial and had a good start for your day, but not bloated or lethargic. Those are my current feelings, so well done.

Eggs benedict at the Homeway costs $10.95, coffee included. A superlative meal in every regard, it earns my second four eggs out of four.

The Homeway is located at 955 Mt. Pleasant Road, at Erskine. The Benedict Chronicles is an ongoing, non-regular series. No, Matt did not eat two eggs benedicts this weekend like last time. He just wrote two reviews.