breakfast and lunch, one plate, explaining the maximalism

The eggs themselves were minimal, but it got a little busy with the tomato-salad-salumi-mix.

Also, it was both breakfast and lunch, so I figured adding a second cured meat wasn’t totally out of order (actually the few slices of a small saucisson were there because there was so little of it, and because I couldn’t imagine how else I would use it), but once again there was no cantaloupe, no strawberries, no pineapple, watermelon, avocado, or maraschino cherries.

  • what there was, were 4 slices of thick pastured pigs bacon, and 6 fresh eggs from pastured chickens, both from the Amish family-run Millport Dairy Farm stand in the Union Square Greenmarket, the eggs seasoned with a local Long Island sea salt (from P.E. & D.D. Seafood), freshly ground black pepper, finished sprinkled with bronze fennel flowers and buds from Rise & Root Farm, scissored from their stems; there was one ripe green heirloom tomato from Norwich Meadows Farm, halved, seasoned with salt, pepper, a pinch of smoked salt from Spices and Tease in the Chelsea Market, and sprinkled with torn spearmint leaves, the gift of a friend, sautéed in a little olive oil, turning once, arranged on the plates on top of a nest of beautiful washed and dried leaves of a small head of Roxy purple leaf lettuce from Lucky Dog Organic Farm that had already been dressed with a little salt, pepper, and a few drops of very good olive oil, Renieris Estate ‘Divina’ (Koroneiki varietal), Hania, Crete, from Whole Foods Market, sprinkled with chopped lovage from Quarton Farm; there was a very small amount of finely sliced tropea (sweet Italian red) onion from Alewife Farm and part of a finely sliced fresh habanada pepper from Campo Rosso Farm, heated together inside an antique enameled cast iron porringer in a little olive oil, placed on and around the tomato and the greens, and a little more than a dozen thin slices of a saucisson (‘French style salami’, on the label) crafted by Jacüterie with pasture raised pork raised by Walnut Hill Farm arranged around the tomato; Vermont Creamery butter was available to accompany slices of a bread baked that morning (not toasted), Pain d’Avignon 7 grain bread (rustic, whole wheat, honey, sesame- sunflower-flax seed, oats) from Foragers Market
  • the music was a number of symphonies by a Bohemian composer working in Vienna during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Leopold Koželuch, performed by the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Pardubice, Marec Štilec conducting