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Nolita

Nolita, Restaurants
Brunch @ Jacques - NYC
09.12.08 | Permalink | Comment?

Croque Madame @ Jacques

Two weeks ago I had a very satisfying Croque Madame at Epicerie Cafe Charbon. (In case you don’t know, a Croque Madame is basically a glorified ham sandwich with a poached egg on top. A Croque Madame minus an egg is a Croque Monsieur.) Prior to that, I had been avoiding brunch places, just because I was sick of the same-ole same ole. I mean how many Eggs Benedicts can you eat in a lifetime? Also, David is now scared of hollandaise sauce after reading Kitchen Confidential. For those who haven’t read the book, Anthony Bourdain writes that hollandaise sauce is a “petri-dish of biohazards” since it needs to be kept at a low temperature (to prevent cooking the eggs in the sauce) and it is never made-to-order. So basically, at a restaurant, a vat of lukewarm hollandaise sauce sits in the back of the kitchen throughout brunch service, breeding germs and bacteria as the day progresses. Personally, this doesnt’t scare me that much. I mean, I’ve never gotten sick from an Eggs Benedict, and because of the high turn-around at New York restaurants, I feel most places will be making more than one batch of hollandaise sauce a day. Someone, correct me if I am wrong. Maybe I trust restaurants too much, but my feeling is, you can’t live your life in fear. I mean puh-leez, I have more things in life to be worried about.

In any case, the Croque Madame at Charbon was delicious and since then I’ve been constantly craving the cheesey ham goodness of a Croque Madame. So last Saturday, as soon as I woke up, I looked online to see where they have the best Croque Madame in NYC. The people over at CHOW recommended Bar Six and Pastis, but being the lazy bastard that I am on Saturday mornings, we made our way over to Jacques in NoLita instead. MORE »