momo's in the news: Poaching Season

from The Toronto Star, Sunday February 19, 2006

Poached Eggs Star food editor Jennifer Bain applauds chefs who scour the globe for new ways to make an old dish new.

New Orleans - from Momo's Bistro

DISH DECONSTRUCTION: Eggs Sardou finds a toasted english muffin topped with wilted spinach and canned artichoke bottoms and then heated under a salamander. This is topped with two poached eggs and homemade hollandaise sauce (made from a secret recipe with mustard and worcestershire sauce). On the side, hash browns made from parboiled yukon gold potatoes that are dried and roasted with oil and secret seasonings. And for garnish, mixed fresh fruit.

BACKGROUND: Eggs Sardou was apparently invented around 1908 at Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans and named for French dramatist Victorien Sardou. The original recipe calls for anchovy fillets, ham and truffles.

OFFICIAL WORD: "The key, of course, is the hollandaise sauce — it has to be flavoured properly," says owner Mary March. "The best thing is our hash browns."

THE STORY: Momo's launched in 2003 with a Cajun-fusion menu (that "morphed into cajun confusion," laughs Mary March) and plenty of live local jazz. Mary March moved here from the UK20 years ago and has spent 15 years running a packaging company. Her husband — Frank March, the restaurant's resident drummer — plays often at the Rex Nightclub jazz jam. Brunch extras: a free basket of croissants to start the meal and Ovation chocolates with the bill.