Tuesday 10 July 2012

Montezuma's breakfast

In our house, when I were a lad, we sometimes used to eat something we called a "Mexican eye" . Take one slice of a sliced loaf, cut a circular hole in the middle, part-fry it, break an egg into the middle, then finish frying, until you end up with a piece of fried bread with a fried egg in the middle. A plate of Mexican eye was traditionally accompanied by my dad cracking some gorily unamusing ocular-themed joke on the lines of 'How do you make a Venetian blind? Poke his eyes out!'

Here's one I made earlier:
It's not an entirely faithful recreation of this cholesterol-laden childhood treat - for the authentic 1960s/1970s vibe, use white bread, rather than the seeded granary thingy we had in the bread bin and fry in something suitably retro like Spry Crisp n' Dry or Trex.

I've tried to get all nostalgic with people over this snack, but nobody I've ever met outside my immediate family has a clue what I'm talking about. When I explain what I mean by "Mexican eye", they tell me it's just a variation on "eggy bread", a dish a lot of other people seem to have grown up with, but which we never cooked in our house.

Mr Google's been no help on my nostalgia quest - when I type in "Mexican eye" I get information about things like Cuete a la Mexicana, a Mexican-style roast made with eye beef, (AKA tenderloin). Alternatively, up pops something extremely NSFW (Urban Dictionary presents some rather eye-opening material if you type in the phrase "Mexican eye" - I won't link directly, but smut buffs now know where to go).

So, it looks as if me and my family are more or less on our own on this one. Is there a special word for unshared nostalgia? There should be.

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