People often ask me what my favourite food is and I always feel like my answer disappoints them. It’s true — my favourite food will never make the A-list of culinary creations but that’s part of its beauty for me. If I was stuck on a desert island and could only eat one meal for the remainder of my days, it would be this: Eggs Benedict.
I’m a super fan of eggs. I’ve never met one I didn’t like. They are perhaps the most versatile food I’ve ever cooked with and the taste changes depending on what you’re making. Eggs Benedict is (in my opinion) as close to a perfect meal as you can get: perfectly poached eggs perched upon a pair of English muffins, smothered in creamy hollandaise sauce. They are often topped with salmon or turkey, sometimes no meat at all.
I just had an excellent version of this classic dish in Abu Dhabi. I’ve tried this dish in a lot of different restaurants in the capital and much like pizza, even when this dish is bad, it’s still good. But there are some that really stand out and the classic Eggs Benedict at Fanr restaurant at Manarat Al Saadiyat is one of them.
As soon as I saw that poached eggs were offered at this casual eatery, I closed the menu (and then started salivating). I could barely stand the wait from the time I ordered until the time I was served, which admittedly was only about 10 minutes. The eggs were firm with a runny centre and the muffins were perfectly toasted (something that often gets overlooked when making this dish). The rich, silky hollandaise sauce was, I’m pretty sure, the stuff dreams are made of. Instead of meat, the eggs came with sautéed mushrooms and asparagus — an excellent combination.
As if the dish itself wasn’t enough to bring about world peace, it also came with two sides: a roasted tomato and a hash brown.
I would like to try the rest of the food at Fanr, but I probably won’t. If they keep serving their Classic Eggs Benedict, I’ll never need to look at their menu again. And at Dh45, this dish is a steal.
Fanr is open from 10am to 11pm daily, 02 657 5888, www.fanrrestaurant.ae.
