I’ve already said Hank’s Place in Chadds Ford is one of my favorite restaurants in Pennsylvania. They specialize in good, down-to-earth comfort food. Whether it be breakfast or lunch, you can be sure the portions will be hearty and you will not leave hungry. It’s also important to note that you might want to avoid eating here altogether if you’re on a diet. Mixed into this simple menu are a few more interesting finds. They are big on Frittatas (I cannot seem to remember a restaurant where I live in New Jersey which has these) and also offering a unique substitution of cream chipped beef instead of Hollandaise sauce on your Eggs Benedict.  But what I ordered this past weekend might be the most bizarre breakfast combination I’ve ever had.

Take a toasted, open-face English muffin. Top with smoked salmon, two poached eggs, and cover with cream chipped beef. It’s essentially a Norwegian Eggs Benedict. I am not sure if there is a region in the country or the world where such a trio is stacked together, but to me, it was intriguing. To my surprise, it worked extremely well. Incredibly rich, of course, due to the runny egg yolks and that cream from the beef, but complex too. With such richness comes the need for an additional flavor to break through. In an Eggs Benedict, there would be Canadian Bacon, but with this it is the salmon. The lox almost melted away under all that was going on above. The smokiness was there, serving  like a bacon infusion to the dish. This was gourmet, a quality that I have not seen achieved in much fancier restaurants.