“Egg, Bacon, American Cheese. Soft, toasted, buttered roll. Just a dash of hot sauce. What a way to start my new life. With the Perfect Egg Sandwich.”
How’s everyone holding up, folks? I know it’s been a bit quiet here on the blog. Admittedly I’ve been updating my Patreon community and Twitter friends more regularly. Pandemic brain, am I right?
This past month I’ve been finding my energy more in the physical than in the mental — planting a vegetable garden, learning more about kitchen witchery, and baking stuff for friends and family.
We are making our way through our new normal, so I based today’s recipe on a film that’s all about finding oneself in a world turned upside down. I’m talking about Harley Quinn’s Perfect Egg Sandwich from Birds of Prey.
Click here to skip to the recipe for The Perfect Egg Sandwich.
Fantabulous Emancipation
In Birds of Prey, we see a cast of characters whose identities start wholly defined by the names and actions of other people. Through a series of shared events, these each find their version of rebirth. Black Canary sheds her mobster ties, Renee Montoya leaves her boss’s shadow, Huntress finds purpose after avenging her family, and Cassandra Cain finds a new partner in crime and compassion in one Harley Quinn.
But mostly I want to talk about Harley Quinn.
Harleen Quinzel’s overwhelming desire for love comes from a constant stream of rejections. Her father trades her for a six-pack of beer. The nuns raising her never spare the rod. And the Joker fashions her anew in his image before dumping her when she wants him to recognize that “behind every successful man, there is a bada** broad.” The only love she needs for a real change, though, is love and respect for herself.
When she blows up Ace Chemicals, she emerges reborn, a Harley Quinn who acts under her convictions rather than the approval of narcissists. She still has some growing up to do. But eventually, she finds freedom in following not the Good Way or the Bad Way, but the Harley Way.
So what better way to start the first day of your new life with a simply delicious breakfast? And also, eggs. Hello, metaphorical symbolism on a literal silver-foil platter!
The Perfect Egg Sandwich
Harley walks us through the creation of Sal the Armenian’s egg sandwich, the perfect egg sandwich: “Egg, Bacon, American Cheese. Soft, toasted, buttered roll. Just a dash of hot sauce.” I had to deconstruct the scene to figure out to recreate this perfect moment in breakfast, shot by shot.
Chances are you are like me, and you don’t have a flat top griddle with a grease reservoir. That’s why timing is everything from buttering and toasting the bread, to melting the cheese over some over-easy eggs. You will also need to drain off all that excess bacon grease. Expect to use at least two skillets, maybe even three if you don’t have a grill-press.
I didn’t have a grill-press. Nor did I have duck eggs. Margot Robbie is allergic to chicken, so they used duck eggs. Did you know that? Also, what the heck us up with this shot?
It’s not consistent with the sandwich’s construction. I mean it’s pretty, but–
I’m rambling again, aren’t I?
Some interesting things I noted, though. The window of Sal’s convenience store advertises Mexican quick-order food items — tostadas, tacos, burritos, and most important, tortas. I figure that Sal runs his shop in Gotham’s Spanish Quarter and serves breakfast on those lovely bolillo rolls used for tortas.
I also base my assumption on that we see Harley on an action-packed chase through Hispanic-style open-air markets to protect her perfect egg sandwich from every person she had ever wronged. So this is why I also used a habanero pepper-based hot sauce that was popular when I went to Mexico last year.
This combination, so simple and yet so delicious, will melt your sadness like processed cheese on a hot griddle. Like Harley, I just about cried when that perfect egg sandwich hit the pavement. There are few greater joys in this world than the taste of bacon, cheese, and egg yolk exploding in your mouth and dribbling down your chin.
And I believe that sometimes it’s those simple pleasures that help make life worth living in dark times like these.
Sing for your Supper
If you plan to cook the recipes off the site, keep scrolling. However, while access to recipes on the blog will always be free, I now have printable PDF recipe cards and thematic cook-along Spotify playlists as rewards for those who choose to support the blog.
The printable recipe cards and playlist for The Perfect Egg Sandwich will be available as a $2 donor reward on my Ko-Fi page until Wednesday, June 3, 2020, at 8 pm EST.
-OR-
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recipe
“I wanna taste the CHEESE!”
The Perfect Egg Sandwich
Equipment: Stovetop, two large skillets, grill press or another heavy-bottomed skillet, heat-safe pastry brush, tongs, spatula, and a bread knife.
Ingredients:
- 4 bolillo or hoagie rolls
- 8 slices of American cheese
- 8 eggs
- 12 slices of bacon
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- habanero hot sauce
- kosher salt
Instructions:
- Heat one of the skillets over medium heat on the stovetop and cook the bacon until crispy. Drain the excess fat as necessary into a clean container for future use and dry the cooked bacon on a paper towel-lined plate.
- While the bacon cooks, slice the rolls in half lengthwise along the side, then set aside. Heat the other skillet over a medium flame.
- When hot, brush melted butter onto the cut sides of one of the rolls and place them face-down on the skillet. Top the bun with a grill press or another skillet. Let toast a minute and a half to two minutes before transferring to a cutting board. Repeat with the remaining rolls.
- Place three strips of bacon on the bottom half of each sandwich.
- Brush both skillets with melted butter and crack two eggs on each as close together as possible. Season with kosher salt.
- Flip the eggs when the whites almost entirely set, then top each pile with two slices of cheese. When the edges of the cheese melt, transfer each egg pile on top of the bacon.
- Repeat steps 5 and 6 with the remaining eggs and cheese.
- Add two dashes of hot sauce to the top of the cheese on each sandwich. Then top with the other half of the bun and slice in half before serving.
