Monday, August 03, 2015

Anchovy Breakfast Surprise

Last night I was reading in THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY about a mule and and an ass both carrying heavy burdens. One was laden with salt and the other with wool. Well, this one donkey (or mule or whatever) falls into some water and his salt melts and his burden gets lighter! So the other donkey (or whatever) tries the same thing. But his wool gets sodden and even heavier. Get it? Burton says, "So one thing may be good and bad to several parties, upon diverse occasions." This is my way of saying that I went to bed craving anchovies. And I was like, "My breakfast upon the morrow shall include anchovies, one way or another!" So I want to tell you about this great sandwich I made. Dr. Theresa had whipped up some delicious salmon spread for dinner last night and I used the leftovers as a condiment on two slices of bread this morning. Meanwhile, I put some butter in a hot frying pan with some anchovies and a lot of fresh garlic sliced thin and some red pepper flakes. And when that was going pretty good I cracked an egg over it. So then I put the fried egg between the two pieces of salmon-lathered bread and grilled that sandwich to golden-brown perfection, like they say in commercials, in the small remaining amount of anchovy/garlic/pepper butter. Now, maybe that sounds gross to you! All I can say is I have revealed myself at my most vulnerable and I hope we can still be friends. Because that was a top-notch, world-class sandwich. As I also read in a subsequent chapter of THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY last night, "I conclude, our own experience is the best Physician; that diet which is most propitious to one is often pernicious to another; such is the variety of palates, humors, and temperatures, let every man observe, and be a law unto himself."