Tofu Benedict from Earwax Cafe
Item Purchased: Tofu Benedict from Earwax Cafe
Location Purchased: Earwax Cafe / 1561 N. Milwaukee Ave. / Chicago, IL
Price: $7.50 + tax
Review: When I am eating with my girlfriend, I eat vegetarian for two reasons. First, I really enjoy vegetarian cuisine. After a life of eating burgers and varied chicken dishes, I find that vegetarian dishes offer much more flavor on my palette. Second (and more importantly), I like to be able to offer my girlfriend a taste of whatever I order. There is nothing more important while dining out than to be able to let your fellow diners partake in the dish you have ordered. I don't think my generosity would go over too well if I turned to her with greasy lips and a mouth full of animal entrails and said "want some?"
Earwax Cafe's tofu benedict is a dish I have enjoyed many times before. The equation is simple. Take your regular, everyday eggs benedict recipe and replace the sliced ham that usually comes between the poached egg and the English muffin and replace it with a thin slice of lightly seasoned tofu. Everything else is the same... or so I thought. First, I would swear on a holy text of your choosing that the last time I ordered this dish at Earwax, that there was a hollandaise sauce generously slathered atop the egg-tofu-muffin towers. Today I received no such slather. Instead, the eggs were poached with the yolks left runny, so that when I pierced the thin whites, the egg innards erupted over the open faced breakfast. I'm all for a cook's interpretation of an age-old culinary equation so this didn't bother me too much. The next mealtime riff, however, did cause a stir in my already rumbling stomach. Beneath the egg and tofu, there was a sizable collection of thick-sliced mushrooms awaiting consumption. While this added surprise may have pleased most vegetarians and carnivores alike, I happen to be the minority. I hate mushrooms! Call me finicky, but a mushroom is a fungus, and though I eat some pretty disgusting things on a regular basis, I refuse to eat anything that grows on athlete's feet. Sorry, I just can't do it. I don't like the texture and I only like the flavor insomuch as a minor seasoning. I can't stomach mushrooms as a substance to be masticated and swallowed. Also, holy book or not, I know that the last time I ordered the tofu benedict from earwax, there was no fungus to be found on the plate. Perhaps I need to pay closer attention to the text in the menu, but once you have had a dish at a restaurant you frequent, you tend to not examine the contents as dutifully.
Despite the minor setback due to having to scrape the mushrooms off of my English muffin, I still highly recommend this dish (especially if you enjoy the 'shrooms). As with all of Earwax's foods, the tofu benedict is tasty and filling. Even without the hollandaise sauce, the egg yolk gives this breakfast the perfect flavor and the tofu is lightly cooked to provide it with a light brown coating, making it easy to slice each sandwich into manageable bites.
Next time I will be sure to ask for no mushrooms regardless of what the menu says.
Rating: 4 / 5
Location Purchased: Earwax Cafe / 1561 N. Milwaukee Ave. / Chicago, IL
Price: $7.50 + tax
Review: When I am eating with my girlfriend, I eat vegetarian for two reasons. First, I really enjoy vegetarian cuisine. After a life of eating burgers and varied chicken dishes, I find that vegetarian dishes offer much more flavor on my palette. Second (and more importantly), I like to be able to offer my girlfriend a taste of whatever I order. There is nothing more important while dining out than to be able to let your fellow diners partake in the dish you have ordered. I don't think my generosity would go over too well if I turned to her with greasy lips and a mouth full of animal entrails and said "want some?"
Earwax Cafe's tofu benedict is a dish I have enjoyed many times before. The equation is simple. Take your regular, everyday eggs benedict recipe and replace the sliced ham that usually comes between the poached egg and the English muffin and replace it with a thin slice of lightly seasoned tofu. Everything else is the same... or so I thought. First, I would swear on a holy text of your choosing that the last time I ordered this dish at Earwax, that there was a hollandaise sauce generously slathered atop the egg-tofu-muffin towers. Today I received no such slather. Instead, the eggs were poached with the yolks left runny, so that when I pierced the thin whites, the egg innards erupted over the open faced breakfast. I'm all for a cook's interpretation of an age-old culinary equation so this didn't bother me too much. The next mealtime riff, however, did cause a stir in my already rumbling stomach. Beneath the egg and tofu, there was a sizable collection of thick-sliced mushrooms awaiting consumption. While this added surprise may have pleased most vegetarians and carnivores alike, I happen to be the minority. I hate mushrooms! Call me finicky, but a mushroom is a fungus, and though I eat some pretty disgusting things on a regular basis, I refuse to eat anything that grows on athlete's feet. Sorry, I just can't do it. I don't like the texture and I only like the flavor insomuch as a minor seasoning. I can't stomach mushrooms as a substance to be masticated and swallowed. Also, holy book or not, I know that the last time I ordered the tofu benedict from earwax, there was no fungus to be found on the plate. Perhaps I need to pay closer attention to the text in the menu, but once you have had a dish at a restaurant you frequent, you tend to not examine the contents as dutifully.
Despite the minor setback due to having to scrape the mushrooms off of my English muffin, I still highly recommend this dish (especially if you enjoy the 'shrooms). As with all of Earwax's foods, the tofu benedict is tasty and filling. Even without the hollandaise sauce, the egg yolk gives this breakfast the perfect flavor and the tofu is lightly cooked to provide it with a light brown coating, making it easy to slice each sandwich into manageable bites.
Next time I will be sure to ask for no mushrooms regardless of what the menu says.
Rating: 4 / 5
posted by Kevin | permalink |
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