Growing up, a favorite morning meal when we were up in the mountains was corned beef hash with a poached egg. Times and budget being what they were, the corned beef was from a can. In fact, I preferred it kept in the round, sliced, and then the slices fried up and the egg put on top. Add in a fresh-from-the-oven blueberry muffin (sometimes including blueberries we had picked), and it was nirvana.
Over the years since, I got introduced to real corned beef hash. It was always at diners it seemed, where yesterday’s corned beef and baked potatoes were diced and grilled up in front of you. Poaching eggs being a rarity these days, it was most often an over easy or sunny side egg or two on top. Comfort food.
I think the best I’ve had was at a diner just down the street from the King George Hotel in San Francisco. Jerry Pournelle had recommended the hotel to me for a science conference, it being his preferred hotel. At the time, I found the rooms up and back to be quite nice for SF, and available at government per diem. He may have also recommended the diner on the corner nearby, and if so it’s one more thing for which I hope I thanked him.
The memories are fragmented now (stupid lightning), but it seems like I went out the front door of the hotel, turned right, and the diner was on the corner. It may or may not have been the Mason Cafe/Diner, as this was a few decades back. I do remember sitting at a counter watching the cook dice the corned beef and potatoes then fry them up on the griddle, and the amazing smell as it cooked.
I can’t imagine wanting to go to SF right now, but if you have to, check out the King George and the Mason Diner. From the website, the hotel has had a renovation or two since I was last there, and no longer lists an afternoon tea, but was a solid place to stay back in the day. If the diner is the one I remember, I also remember never having a bad breakfast there. Can’t speak for today, but back in the day if you didn’t like the food options where you were in SF, walk another block.
Recently, I’ve been craving real corned beef hash and eggs. There are several places in Indy that advertise having such, including my two favorite breakfast places nearby were I do my monthly splurge breakfast.
Turns out, one of the two fibs about that. If the corned beef hash didn’t come out of a can, their cook should be shot. Sadly typical these days.
The other, however, was and is the real deal. It wasn’t so much diced as chunks of corned beef they had corned and cooked themselves with some of the house potato. Tasty, meaty, filling, and oh-so-good with two eggs over easy.
I’m seriously looking at the budget and thinking of adding some brisket to my grocery list. I have the corning spices, I have the means, and would kill for some good corned beef right now as I’m still craving beef after the surgery. In fact, would love to do enough to put up several meals of corned beef for supper, and then chop up the rest and fry it up with maybe some onions or such to make hash to have for breakfast(s). Not that great at over easy, so more practice would be good. Really shouldn’t bake any blueberry muffins, but sure is tempting. Corned beef hash and eggs, blueberry muffin dripping with real butter, and a good cup of black coffee. Breakfast just doesn’t get much better.
So, what are your favorite comfort food breakfasts?
Getting hit by lightning is not fun! If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, which include moving once we have medical issues cleared up, feel free to hit the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo, use the options in the Tip Jar in the upper right, or drop me a line to discuss other methods. It is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
Growing up where I did, I’d never even heard of “corned beef” until I was grown and saw it on a sandwich menu. I know, I know… but we were simple Okies and brisket was slow-smoked and sliced, and we had the option of a bit of barbecue sauce (I varied on this one depending on how tender the brisket was).
I spent glorious summers with my great-grandma while my parents did temporary work at a summer camp to earn extra $$; mom was a teacher and dad was a college student. Sometimes instead of bacon, Grandma would slice up some Spam and fry it with the eggs. During those summers, she taught me how to cook breakfasts and how to do quilting. I still have a couple of the quilts we made together. In the afternoons, right after lunch, I had to go outside or take a brief lie-down because she wanted to watch her Stories and didn’t want me interrupting. hehe
Thank you for spawning those memories. I hadn’t thought about them in a long time. Beautiful, beautiful times.
Oh, I didn’t get to try smoked brisket until I was grown, just wasn’t a thing in central Georgia growing up. Boy did we miss something. If it is done long, slow, and right, it does indeed need no sauce.
Spam was another I don’t remember growing up. It was only later that I was introduced to it, and it is a nice treat every now and then.
Those memories sound wonderful, glad to do it. 🙂 I didn’t quilt, but my adopted “grandma” in the mountains did, and did some amazing work. Like you say, good memories.