Sue Sue’s perfect muffins and Eggs McMalawer

When I was in high school, I had a crush on a girl named Sue for about two weeks. Then I discovered that she didn’t know who I was.

Alas.

Like so many other tempest tossed romances, mine ended with nary a whimper. It could have happened 500 year ago or last week and the results were the same: a heart broken on an adolescent level. Indeed, the only difference between tragic romances of today and those back then is that back then, we weren’t all vampires.

However, I have been able to rekindle relationships from those cheery days at Chatham High albeit the long distance kind through the magic of Facebook™. In the 30 some years since I left the perfect small town, we’ve more or less become whatever we were supposed to be. In my case, I busied myself in cold world of data in my software universe. Sue stood by the warmth of her hearth and became a baker, and a good one at that.

Baking to me is one of the Dark Arts. I can cook anything on top of the stove. I can roast like nobody’s business. But baking? Impossible. During one recent exchange, she said she was going to make some English Muffins.  I was dumbfounded. Baking English Muffins? From scratch? I don’t understand. How can you make an English Muffin?

There was humor in response and an invitation to sample some of her glorious fare. They came out of the oven on Thursday and arrived on my doorstep on Friday. But what to do with these magnificent muffins? There was only one possible use – Eggs McMalawer.

Her Imperial Majesty likes a poached egg on an English Muffin, so I decided to pull out all the stops, obtaining thick slices of Canadian Bacon from The Meat House™.

Hardware -- sandwiches

Bake Hampton™ English Muffins

4 large eggs, poached

4 slices thick top Canadian Bacon

4 slices American Cheese

Hardware – Hollandaise

2 egg yolks

1/3 slick of butter, melted and hot

Pinch of salt

Technique – yields two servings

Hollandaise

In a food processor, combine the egg yolks and salt (you can add a pinch of cayenne pepper but I don’t). Next, with the food processor on low, slowly drip the hot butter into the eggs yolks until froth up and they double in volume. Set aside in a warm place until it’s time to plate.

Sandwiches

Fork separate the muffins and lightly toast. (Sue will get mad if you use a knife.)

In a skillet, sear the Canadian Bacon until lightly browned. Set aside.

Poach the eggs in salted boiling water.

To plate:

The Bake Hampton muffin as the base, topped with cheese, the Canadian Bacon and the poached egg. Drizzle with Hollandaise Sauce. Garnish with fresh cracked black pepper or a pinch of cayenne.

The difference between the Sue’s Bake Hampton muffins and what I would find at the store, can best be explained by her Imperial Majesty Junior, who said succinctly, that “they taste more like bread”. When I asked her what she meant, she said “they taste more like real bread – like a baguette – that the others.”

I asked Sue about her baking and her career choice. Her younger brother Bobby is a chef and her older brother Mark is spice importer to the high end Trade in Manhattan and The Hamptons. "As far as family career choices, yes it is bizarre," She says. "We always gave Mom the credit, as she was a foodie way before foodies were in fashion."

I think that sums it up pretty well; the difference between Bake Hampton’s English muffins and what I can get at any grocery store is the difference between the bread they serve at the local franchised sub shop and what one can get at the corner bakery in Paris. It wasn’t manufactured in a factory; it was created by an artisan. And that makes all the difference in the world.

Bake Hampton

21 Wilder Estates Drive

Alexander, NC 28701

www.bakehampton.com

When bigger does not mean better – A case for The Meat House

A large, new (and I won't name it) super market opened on Six Forks Road, across the street from Her Imperial Majesty's office and the local Chick-Fil-A. It was foretold to be what North Raleigh needed; the cornerstone of a new culinary identity that the zip codes north of Interstate 440 have wanted for years. It was to be, in short, 40,000 square feet of green, environmentally friendly Foodie Paradise.

No longer would people like me need to drive inside the beltline (or to Chapel Hill or Durham) for the ingredients we need to live and cook The Good Life. Produce would be fresh, organic and beautiful. Breads would be artisanal. Meat and seafood would be humanely and locally raised. The building itself was to be "Green", conserving rainwater in cisterns for later use. Customers were encouraged to bring their own re-usable shopping bags. Carry out from the "hot bar" would be served in bio-degradable paper to go containers instead of plastic or Styrofoam.

So I went there during the opening weeks and joined the throng. It looked less a crowded supermarket and more a crowded but well lit nightclub. Parking was problematic and once inside, people were everywhere. Sure, the lettuce looked great, but it's was all wrapped and served up in plastic bins. Nobody told me that re-usable shopping bags are a great place for e. Coli to breed. And the paper "to go" containers? They got soggy after about 20 minutes.

Green and environmentally friendly? I'm not so sure. It felt more like a conceit, a way of gift wrapping gluttony so that it was more attractive, or at least, less ugly. It is sort of like believing that baby foxes and unicorns come out of a Prius' tail pipe: one can drive a car and still "Save the Planet " through thoughtful and conspicuous consumption. It's amazing that one can sell moral vanity at a premium, but perhaps there is no other way to sell it. Its parking lot is full.

Scott Morra and a selection of cowboy rib steaks.

I remember the way it used to be. There was a place in Madison. NJ, down the road from where I lived called Esposito Brothers. They had the most beautiful meats and cheeses with a smattering of fresh produce – everything one needed for dinner save the wine, which had to be sold a "Package Store" down the street. One could walk in and walk out with a feast in 15 minutes. Talk about paleo food, this was truly Old School.

Such a thing exists today in North Raleigh. At the corner of Millbrook and Falls of Neuse Road is The Meat House, a glorious throwback to the butcher shops of my youth. In it, wide selections of beef, pork, lamb and poultry are laid out behind glass cases. The produce is NOT wrapped in plastic. There is no vainglorious preening about how they're saving the environment. The owner, Derek Wilkins, first saw the concept while visiting family in Maine. He went with his brother to pick up dinner and was blown away.

"I stood there awestruck," he said during a recent phone conversation. "[My brother] picked up the meat, the veggies and the beer and we were gone. I just couldn't get the thought of The Meat House out of my mind."

Derek and his father Craig own both Triangle locations of The Meat House (the other is in Cary). It is, to quote Derek, "'the modern re-visualization of the neighborhood butcher shop". At 3,500 square feet, it's not nearly as big as the (unnamed) behemoth on Six Forks. And that is a big selling point.

"One of the important things about The Meat House is that you can get in and out and 15 minutes," he said. And he's right. Because it's not so big, I did get in and out in 15 minutes.

The concept originated in New England and is franchised across the US. They currently have 26 locations. What they carry is dinner; prime and top choice meats, veggies, and sides. They also carry a wide array of pre-marinated meats that are ready for the grill or skillet.

"We make it very simple," he said. "We've done a lot of the prep work for you."

So, is it the second coming of Esposito Brothers in Madison? They've actually done it one better. The Meat House sells wine and has a classically trained sommelier on staff in the person of Lawrence Kobesky, to help with the pairings of wine with dinner.

In the end, it is an old school butcher shop. But it's also more. It's like a convenience store for foodies. It works because it's simple and unpretentious, unlike some other grocers in the city. And the meat is truly magnificent.


Two Triangle locations:


1225 Kildaire Farm Road
Cary, NC 27511-5523
(919) 465-3082
 
5045 Falls of Neuse Road
Raleigh, N.C. 27609
(919) 809-8914.