The Broken Yolk Breaking Records

The Broken Yolk

136 College Ave, Somerville

Price: $4.77

Rating: 84/100

Fullness: like swallowing a 3-course meal

The journey continued today as I paid a visit to The Broken Yolk in Somerville this morning on College Ave. I’ve heard some good things including a self-proclaimed world-famous breakfast burrito. A number of people talked to me about this place so today was the day.

I was posed with a wide array of breakfast sandwich options such as a steak, egg and cheese, a veggie medley, egg & cheese as well as the very tempting corned beef hash, egg & cheese. There was also the suicidal double meat, double egg, double cheese on 3 slices of toast, but I told myself no. With some deliberation, I settled on the one with steak and took a seat at one of their bright yellow tables. I used the time to look around and get a feel for the place, which was very yellow and baby blue. It was a nice little diner atmosphere with a chipper Latino gentleman manning the counter.

About 11 or 12 minutes went by when the smiley fellow came around the corner with my sammy. Thornton’s “Breakfast Burger” was a tough act to follow, but The Broken Yolk was able to deliver with some innovation. This was something the Bacon Phantom had never come across before. Wrapped delicately in a thin blanket of egg(beater) was essentially a steak and cheese. I didn’t really know what to expect, but the shaved steak caught me off guard. I was imagining an egg and cheese with a flank of steak or something like McDonalds tried passing off back in the late 90s.

The scorching hot breakfast package was tucked inside a gently toasted plain bagel. The whole sandwich came out at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Pretending to exhibit restraint, I waited about 30 seconds and then dove in fangs first.

This thing was delicious, but far from nutritious. I got about half way through and had to come up for air. Cheese was dripping and flavor was bursting. The excess of grease was a bit of a negative, but nowhere near the Busy Bee experience. Nevertheless, it was a great experience. The egg blanket provided an organized eating situation, which proved to helped push its way passed the Breakfast Burger in ratings.

Some of you may be thinking steak and cheese wrapped in an egg doesn’t exactly sound like a breakfast number. I’m not necessarily disagreeing, but I will say this: if I were to eat breakfast for all three meals of the day, I’d save this baby for dinner.

On the 7th Day, He created the Breakfast Burger

Thornton’s Restaurant & Café

150 Huntington Ave., Boston

Price: $5.95 (sandwich/homefries meal)

Rating: 80/100

Fullness: pleasantly full

My search today lead me to a breakfast, lunch & dinner place on Huntington Ave. called Thornton’s Restaurant & Café that serves breakfast all day. The name had me reminiscing of old Thornton’s Restaurant/Bar on Peterborough Street that got leveled in a fiery Hell (RIP). Quite the opposite was today’s breakfast sammy that tasted like it had descended straight from Heaven. Created by the hands of the late Julia Child beyond the Pearly Gates and sent down alongside some well-seasoned homefries.

I ordered the “Breakfast Burger” from a well-mannered gentleman who asked what style of egg I preferred, to which I requested scrambled. The Immaculate Conception of my breakfast took about 12-14 minutes and when it came out it was glowing. The sandwich came on a perfectly toasted English muffin with one very melty slice of orange cheddar and the equivalent of about 2 to 3 eggs worth of eggbeaters. I almost had to unhinge my lower jaw like an anaconda just to get my mouth around the thing!

The Bacon Phantom finds eggbeaters to be a sinful way to cut corners and because of this he had to knock the overall rating down from an 87 to an 80. Only real scrambled egg could have done divine justice for this “Breakfast Burger.” Nevertheless, this meal was fantastic. The quality breakfast sausage was met with high appreciation and the cheddar instead of American was found to be a nice touch.

Although there was no real “burger” as advertised, I was still highly satisfied with the one sausage that had been split a few times down the middle and settled atop the mountain of egg.

Any breakfast sandwich aficionado interested in experiencing Thornton’s Breakfast Burger come ready with an appetite and be prepared to use both hands. GOD SPEED.

Order some water with this one

Crispy Crepes Café

512 Park Drive, Boston

Price: $3.71

Rating: 55/100

Fullness: Thank you hash browns.

Today’s sandwich came from a little Mediterranean spot that I’ve been frequenting since I moved to Beacon Street. It’s a little sit down place, but you order your food at the counter. They make delicious crepes, however today I was on a specific mission. I’ve had their breakfast sandwiches before in traditional as well as triangular crepe form. I felt it was important for information gathering purposes that I didn’t spread my wings too far. I approached the counter to order a BEC on a plain toasted bagel and a side of hash browns for some nourishment.

I took a seat at one of their many tables and after a few minutes most of my company received their meals. Mine however took a bit longer than expected (10 minutes or so). With close examination, I saw that my bagel was lightly toasted, egg slightly burnt, bacon nicely cooked and cheese already melting its way through the bagel hole. Aside from the egg, I was fairly pleased with what I was looking at.

My first bite didn’t really have any flavors jumping out at me. I took a second bite to try and find where the flavor was. Still couldn’t be found. I was confused because as I mentioned, I’ve had this very same sandwich before and sort of enjoyed it. Crispy Crepes didn’t bring their A-game today, but in general they’re a solid go-to for cheap eats (bro talk).

There is another thing I would like to briefly address. There has always been something peculiar about their bacon. A guest of mine joked that perhaps it was horse bacon. I had never heard of such a thing, but after this breakfast session, I’m not sure what to think.

Here’s what was good about the sandwich: the bagel was soft and nicely toasted, the egg was real, the horse bacon was crispy and the whole thing was hot. That being said, the egg was too small and left a few bare bagel bites (very dry, big negative). Actually, the whole thing was like chewing through the Sahara. I’d like to know why restaurants are afraid of using scrambled egg for their sandwiches? Perhaps it would take a little more time, but I like putting some milk and cheese in my scrambled egg when making a “bfastwich”. That’s a good way to add some moisture without having to sop the bagel in grease.

My closing thoughts are this: There was no grand finale. I honestly didn’t even want to finish the sandwich. Unfortunately I had to in the interest of getting my money’s worth.

I’m not writing Crispy Crepe’s off forever. You can’t expect the Coming of Christ to appear in a bacon, egg and cheese at a crepe place. All I’m looking for is a little thoughtfulness.

Bacon Phantom Gets Curveball and a Homerun

The Snack Bar

691 Cambridge St. East Cambridge, MA

Price: $5.35

Rating: 85/100

Fullness: Filled!

The following must be read with the understanding that I never planned on submitting this evaluation on the BSA blog. However, I exercised my executive authority to include the following sandwich after considering its contents.

Don’t judge me.

Ladies and gents, The Snack Bar’s “Portuguese Man ‘o War”! I was tipped off by last weeks Boston Phoenix cheap eats column about this little East Cambridge pizzeria gem. The sub features seasoned pork, deli ham, a fried egg and provolone cheese. I had some extra time today at work to figure out where to get my lunch so I dropped in to try this submarine sandwich that could probably stop Lance Armstrong’s heart.

As you can see from the photo above, I didn’t even consider reviewing this artery clogger until about 2 bites from completion. This was about when I realized why I was so drawn to it; it’s essentially a breakfast sandwich in lunch form with ham, egg, and cheese plus pork, which is weird, but who cares?

That being said, HOLY Shit folks. Molten provolone, delicious ham, the dankest of pork and 2 real fried eggs all on a toasted sub roll! One note on the pork was the excess blubber that I could have done without (bottom right of the photo). Then again, you can’t expect the creator of this beast to think the person ordering it’s going to give a damn about a ‘lil gristle, know what I mean?

The sub was also hot as Hell, which is likely where I’m going for eating this deadly sin. Regardless, the lesson learned today is that glory is out there. We’ve just got to look in the right places.

Our first satisfactory experience

Temptations Café

313 Huntington Ave, Boston

Price: $4.02

Rating: 74/100

Fullness: full enough for 4 bucks

Located across from the YMCA on Huntington is Temptations Café. I had never heard of this place and really only selected it because they were still serving breakfast. I walked in and ordered my usual bacon, egg, and cheese on a plain toasted bagel. I’ve been specifying that my bagel be toasted ever since the cholesterol catastrophe at Busy Bee (see below).

The sandwich took about 6 minutes to assemble so I knew there weren’t going to be any masterpieces served today, but I chose to remain optimistic. I got my sandwich, unwrapped it from the wax paper and observed a puff of a steam. Always a plus to have it served hot. Out tumbled some crisp bacon crumbles as well, which I appreciated, but I had to deduct some points for this in the spirit of the search for the perfect sandwich. The BEC actually featured a plethora of crisp bacon, along with melted American cheese, and one real egg upon a soft, chewy plain bagel.

Within the first few bites I was fairly positive the bacon was precooked (losing much of its flavor). This cost it some points in the evaluation as well. It also made it clear to me that they really don’t care enough about the sandwich to cook the bacon from scratch.

The best flavor experience came from the combination of all the elements. This may seem obvious, but sometimes some flavors stand out more than others. In this instance however it was the bacon, real egg, and melted American that came together to carry itself through to the end. Despite some setbacks, the overall experience was positive, earning a solid C.

Although far from perfect, I would recommend dabbling with Temptations BEC. Four dollars is a bit steep, but it’s to be expected around these parts.