Eggs Benny with Emily: NWBB

Albany is no place to be a purist. Sometimes it takes me a long time to learn a simple, obvious truth. I learned this several years ago with pizza, thanks to the All Over Albany Tournament of PIzza. Then a few years back I had a burger awakening, and opened myself up to all kinds of ridiculous toppings.

Last night, I went to a pan asian restaurant—something I’ve resisted doing for years—and really enjoyed it.

One of my favorite meals is a simple breakfast, with a just laid egg, poached gently, served on top of a thick toasted slice of yeasty, crusty bread, alongside some cultured butter, and maybe a crisp strip of bacon or two. A warm sauce of butter and egg yolks would just be gilding the lily.

But the more I read of Emily’s guest posts, the more I start to reconsider my deeply held beliefs. At least up here, in this corner of the world. Maybe I can hold onto those earlier ideals and seek out some vacation spot in the French countryside or somewhere up in northern California. Or maybe I need to bump that visit to Heather Ridge Farm up my priority list.

I’ve got some more to think about. In the meantime, here’s Emily with the next installment on her love of—and search for—amazing eggs benedict.

The Eggs Benedict Challenge: New World Bistro Bar

This is the one that started it all.

One of the first restaurants I experienced in Albany was New World Bistro. I had dietary restrictions at the time and was blown away by their flexibility and willingness too adapt to all of my needs. New World has always been our go to restaurant for a solid dinner.

It wasn’t until this past winter one Sunday when the boyfriend and I decided to try their brunch. It’s been a tradition of ours to make brunch at home on Sundays (our form of worship), but we decided we had enough of being cooped up in the house and headed out to New World to see what they had to offer.

I suggest making reservations before you go; they are slammed on the weekends. After being welcomed and sat, we carefully looked over the menu. New World offers three different kinds of eggs benedict in addition to changing weekend specials. For us, it wasn’t a choice. Of course we needed to try all three: the rope bennie, the veggie bennie, and the cage salmon bennie all on brioche buns.

I started with what I thought would be my favorite, the cage salmon bennie featuring blackened salmon, green onions, and béarnaise sauce. The salmon was perfectly cooked, but got lost in the sea of béarnaise sauce. I love their salmon, but it didn’t have its own time to shine in this dish. Perhaps a piece of lox would have worked better.

The veggie bennie turned out to be a complete surprise. This version features veggie hash, a thin layer of goats’ cheese, and béarnaise sauce. The veggie hash featured a nice variety of colorful root vegetables. The goats’ cheese was just enough to accent the egg, but did not overwhelm. This was the one version of the three where I could actually taste the sweetness of the brioche bun.

Then we got to the one I thought I would enjoy the least. The ropa bennie features New World’s famous cuban pot roast and guava hollandaise sauce. Readers, I dream of this dish at night. The ropa was slow cooked to perfection and easily cut with a fork. The guava hollandaise sauce perfectly complimented the poached egg with a slight hint of sweetness. My only regret? That I did not eat this one first. Because it had been sitting there for some time, the brioche bun did get quite soggy from the ropa juices.

We rolled away from that table in an enlightened brunch state; we had found a new source of food happiness in the Capital Region. So now we go out to brunch most Sundays to find the best eggs benedict in the area. It challenges us to explore places we never would have been and meet people I never would have.

We have an extensive list of places to visit now thanks to all the comments! I can’t wait for next Sunday.

Hope you all have a great weekend. We’re going to be dropping the young man off at sleep-away camp for the first time ever. Then it’s a quick visit with family. Wish us luck.

And in the meantime, don’t forget to enter to win that pair of VIP Tickets to Eat Drink Saratoga. There is a Yelp giveaway that you won’t want to miss. Check out the link on the top right hand side of this page. I will be at both sessions, and it would be great to see some friendly faces. Cheers!