Fancy Schmancy Guy Kibbee Eggs
It seems that in recent months a link to my post on Guy Kibbee eggs has been added to a Wikipedia entry on egg in the basket, a more common name for the dish. All of a sudden I noticed that I was getting at least two hits a day from the Wikipedia link. Assuming a small percentage of Wikipedia users click through to secondary links, this suggests that a lot of people are interested in eggs in the basket. One thing the Wikipedia entry does get wrong is the claim that the term "Guy Kibbee eggs" was used in a movie. No, the term came about because the actor Guy Kibbee made them in a movie.
When I wrote the original post I didn't know whether the term Guy Kibbee eggs was used purely in my family, nor did I know what movie inspired it. Thanks to the miracle of the internet, I learned, through comments on the post, that the film, from 1935, was called "Mary Jane's Pa," and that other folks did indeed have parents who served them a dish called Guy Kibbee eggs. One of the comments came from a poster whose mother is my mother's contemporary.
I bring this all up because yesterday I ate an excellent twist on Guy Kibbee eggs, from the brunch menu at Brix, a French bistro and wine bar in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, though, of course, it wasn't called Guy Kibbee eggs. Still, having become a de facto Guy Kibbee egg expert, I had no choice but to order this dish. The Brix version was made with a thick piece of challah, was served atop asparagus, and garnished with grated parmigiano and truffle oil. You've come a long way, Kibbee! There was one amusing typo in the description. Another name for the dish is "toad in the hole" (though that's also the name for a different dish in the U.K.), but Brix's menu said "joad in the hole." I was worried that I might have to pull one of Steinbeck's Okies out of a ditch.
Brix
40 West St.
Pittsfield, MA
(413) 236-9463
posted by Peter Cherches at 9:55 AM
6 Comments:
The Anonymous Cook says:
Another name is 'Hobo Egg', although this term is also used to describe an egg in the shell, buried in the embers of a campfire.
I've been making these eggs for years. Two names I've run across are "Alabama Eggs" and "Eggs In A Hole."
I'm sure there are many other names for this tasty dish.
Hi, I was interested to read about "Guy Kibbee" eggs. He was my grandfather, but I had never heard of an egg dish named after him. I do have the poster for Mary Jane's Pa (strangely my first name is Mary Jane although the movie was made quite a few years before I was born or before my parents even met).
Mary Jane Saffran
My brother just sent me and my siblings the link to this blog. As children, our Grandfather in Brooklyn used to make us Guy Kibbee eggs and that is definitely the name we know them by.
My family eat Guy Kibbies. I am writing a little story about finding out no one else called them by thus name. My mum did tell us why she called them that. Anyway in my story someone says "Google it" So as research I have just googled it and have had a life changing experience to discover other people do call them Guy Kibbies!
My husband was Jewish, and always called this dish "Guy Kibbees eggs." I always thought it was a Yiddish phrase, until I ran across the actor Guy Kibbees and saw the movie clip!
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