Well as a Londoner born and bred, all I can say is that the depicted dish was certainly a breakfast treat at our house when I was a child. I don't remember what it was called, though.
E for Eggy
V for Vendetta is a mixed bag of a movie. While thoroughly entertaining, the film is a hodgepodge of mixed messages and muddled metaphors (summed up nicely in this review). One particularly peculiar symbol of resistance against the fascist state is the "eggy in a basket" (aka "bird in a nest") breakfast cooked up by the film's anti-hero terrorist, V. Depicted as some sort of suppression of pleasure, butter and eggs have been outlawed (or at least rationed) in this vision of the future.
Interestingly, the trope of breakfast-as-resistance has come under attack by none other than Alan Moore, co-creator of V for Vendetta, who has renounced the film version and lashed out at the poor "eggy in a basket" as culturally confused:
"They don't know what British people have for breakfast, they couldn't be bothered. 'Eggy in a basket' apparently. Now the US have 'eggs in a basket,' which is fried bread with a fried egg in a hole in the middle. I guess they thought we must eat that as well, and thought 'eggy in a basket' was a quaint and Olde Worlde version."
In the pantheon of science fiction fantasies of future food, V for Vendetta's breakfast occupies an unusual place. At one end of the spectrum is the world of Woody Allen's Sleeper, where fried, fatty foods are not only accepted, but considered supremely healthy. At the other end is Soylent Green, where we all end up feeding upon (spoiler alert!) ourselves ("Soylent Green is people!").
My own preferred vision of sci fi food culture is in Blade Runner, which finds Harrison Ford slurping noodles in a fantasy version of downtown L.A. as a neon-lit mashup of Tokyo, New York, and Hong Kong. Even in a future where humans are under attack by android replicants, there will still be noodles to savor.
Comments
Wholly egg-this was a real treat at my house as a kid because it was my father's specialty. In my world FRIED foods are very healthy and loved by all.
I thought the British did eat this and called it Toad in a Hole.
Toad in the Hole is sausages in a Yorkshire Pudding. Also good.
My mom used to make this for me when I was a child. I always called it "egg with a hole in it," which isn't technically correct, as it is the bread that has the hole, not the egg. Of course I was 5 years old at time.
Thirty something years ago the American Magazine called "Highlights for Kids" had a recipe for something it called a One-Eyed-Pete that was the above mentioned creation cooked with two rashers of bacon which would be laid crosswise on the plate below the one-eyed-pete to make it look like a pirate's flag. And the piece that was cut out laid upon the egg on the plate as Pete's eye patch. I first saw the piece with my mom while waiting at the pediatrician and see asked me if I'd like to try the dish. Many hundreds later, and if it was missed on a school day we'd better have been out of bread, I've changed to olive oil and a nonstick pan but still have highish cholesterol.
A neighbor tells me that another name for the same dish is a Shirley Temple Egg breakfast.
...oops I should have proofread my post.
My family calls them "Bulls Eyes." How's that for an American name?
We grew up with this dish and called it Toad in the Hole, which I know is incorrect. We still call it that though, and it is a favorite of my kids.
I soon as I saw the egg in toast I had memories of when I was a child. I might just have to make one. Thanks
A second vote for "Shirley Temple egg." I found this page by googling that expression in quotes. I was reminded of Shirley Temple -- whose films were on tv almost monthly in the early 50s in northern New Jersey across from New York on the NYC tv stations -- when I spied a DVD of "The Little Princess," as syrupy a ST film as any ever made, in a local shop. Then a proustian memory of my mom making a Shirley Temple egg for my delectation surged into my memory....
Oh my gosh, I not only loved this movie, but I love Egg in a Basket. I actually just made some for the first time. My mom used to make them for my sister and I when we were kids.
By looking at the "eggy in a basket", on V for Vendetta... It looked liked french toast. I actually thought it might of had cinnamon on it. Also the way it was made on the movie, the skillet was loaded with oil. Did you notice that??
omg Rotfl ,there will still be noodles to savor,thats even funnier becuase I love cup a noodle,and I just remembered this family guy episode were peter state`s and I qoute"when Iam with you ramen taste`s just like cup a noodle"& I thought it was the origanal frenchtoast since Amiricans seem to change or add some kind of twist to any foriegn food and culture we adopt.
by, the way how is you prepare it and what culture does eggy in a basket come from?
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