The Ingredient

THE INCREDIBLE, EDIBLE EGG

There’s more to this longtime favorite than breakfast.

BY CAROLE DIXON

People have been eating eggs since the dawn of civilization—as far back as 3200 B.C. They’re signi cant in biblical history and signal springtime renewal with Easter and Passover; pack in a lot of protein (as much as 6 grams per 50-gram egg); and might be the perfect, most versatile whole food. MI PIACE has been in Old Town for more than 30 years, and French Chef Gil Saulnier has been creating Italian-themed menus for several decades. While they have cut back on egg dishes that don’t travel well for takeout, pasta carbonara is still wildly popular for brunch on their patio. The dish uses crispy pancetta, cream, and Parmigiano-Reggiano, with a tossed egg yolk being the star ingredient.

If you prefer to drink your eggs, Jesus Gomez, head barman at the historic RAYMOND 1886, creates a riff on a South American pisco sour cocktail called the “Long Day” using gin, Campari, lemon, sugar, and egg whites. “The egg white is crucial in this cocktail because it creates texture, like sipping on your favorite beer with that perfect foam layer on top,” Gomez says. “It doesn’t change the avor, but it makes it more complex and unique and it’s a delicious source of protein or a pick-me-up cocktail.”

Family-owned BONE KETTLE’S Eric Tjahyadi is known for a bone broth that takes 36 hours to steep. They use eggs for nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) and a dish featuring a soft poached egg cooked in a warm bath with the broth. “It adds more body to the broth,” says Tjahyadi. They just rolled out a brunch dish that’s a twist on a traditional farmer’s steak omelet in the form of beef Rendang using boneless short ribs cooked sous vide for 12 hours, along with a 12-spice java paste.

MILLIE’S CAFÉ in Pasadena and Silver Lake has been serving breakfast all day (until 4 p.m.) for decades and uses a trio of eggs in most of the 50-plus dishes on offer, including unique plates of Hangtown fry with smoked oysters sauteed in marsala wine, shrimp scramble with hearts of palm and goat cheese, along with classic Benedicts. They use cage-free country eggs from Lucerne Valley for their most popular dishes, the “Devil’s Mess” with Cajun-spiced turkey sausage and the new “famous breakfast burrito.”

To recreate your own egg dishes at home, pay a visit to the PASADENA CER-

TIFIED FARMERS MARKETS on Saturday morning at Victory Park—the largest in the SGV since 1984. They also hold a smaller market on Tuesday mornings in the Villa Parke Center. JF ORGANIC FARMS is one of the star egg purveyors servicing local restaurants from Little Beast in Eagle Rock to Lasa in Chinatown.