Like all the foods associated with Passover, the hard-boiled or roasted egg has been invested with a staggering array of symbolic values.
There will always be a roasted egg on the menu at Le Comptoir, bubbling with Parmesan and plenty of brown butter in its tiny cast-iron casserole, and it will always be served with three or four leaves of dressed lettuce and a slice of the sour, crusty country bread that Menes bakes himself.
It is a remarkable combination of ingredients: string beans, pimientos, eggs, shrimp, avocado, tomato, onion, roasted pepper, egg and torn iceburg lettuce....with a garlic vinaigrette dressing.
At various points in my life, I've felt as flat as unleavened bread, bitter as horseradish, tearful as salt water, as fecund yet unfulfilled as the roasted, unfertilized egg.
The fail-proof 100 recipes include grilled polenta, fried eggs, roasted leg of lamb, ember-baked potatoes, grilled grapes and bread pudding.
The demand for figgy pudding in We Wish You a Merry Christmas is accompanied by the more sinister threat, "We won't go until we get some". The wassail drink served on these occasions comprised an intriguing melange of mulled ale, curdled cream, roasted apples, eggs, cloves, ginger, nutmeg and sugar.
Drizzle over grilled meats, roasted veg or morning eggs and use sparingly to enhance the flavour of stews and ragus.
You can choose from six varieties, including roasted potato with egg and cheese, uncured bacon with egg and cheese, chorizo sausage with egg and cheese, free-range chicken with beans and rice, and shredded beef and cheese.
Among other things, they added roasted date pits, egg white and pork blood to wine -- even saltwater, to satisfy the Roman craving for salt".
Salads include warm goat cheese with croutons, tomato, walnuts and raisins; tuna with hard-cooked egg, roasted pepper, potato, tomato, string beans, black olives and anchovies; and cold roast chicken, grilled vegetables, potato, ratatouille, tomato and mesclun.
The East Coast version combines shrimp, green beans, tomato, onion and bacon in a simple red wine vinaigrette; the West Coast version adds to this chopped iceberg lettuce, egg, roasted pepper and avocado.
