Spaghetti With Guanciale And Deep-Fried Farm Egg @ Herbsaint
Herbsaint is mostly French, with a touch of Creole and Cajun. So where did this Italian dish come from? Goes to show that ethnic culinary boundaries are getting fainter and fainter. Every part of this is interesting. The spaghetti is hand-cut in house. Guanciale--smoked hog jowls--is so subtly different from bacon that finding it says a lot about the kitchen's attention to details. The sauce is a modestly-rich cream sauce. And the egg is first poached then deep-fried, with a bread-crumb coating. This is so much better than it sounds that it takes most eaters aback. It's a great first course, and the best one here when the frog legs aren't on the menu.
