I have been trying to find an answer to this recipe question for over 50 years!

My question involves finding a recipe and 'how to' make a breakfast
item that was served in a tiny ?diner? on one of the side streets of
New York in the 1950's.

It was created by a chef who worked in a window of the 'eatery' and
passersby could watch him prepare what they called an 'EIFFEL TOWER'.

It was made of what seemed to be scrambled eggs, and was prepared and
served in a small cast iron frying pan with a handle.  The chef would
?swirl? the egg mixture so that it was round on the bottom and tapered
too a ?peak? on the top.  You ate it right from the pan and it was
?AMAZING? !! ?  (To me it looked more like The Tower of Babel from the
Bible, as it had often been pictured in children?s books?)

For years, I have asked chefs ?How did they do that??  ?But,   I have
never been given a proper answer.  I would LOVE to be able to
re-create this concoction.

I tried to include a sketch which I had done as an example for you,
but your mail system rejected the image.  If you can visualize it as a
 cone-shaped swirl of fluffy scrambled eggs in a small 7? cast-iron
pan, with the base of the cone in the pan tapering to the top at a
height of around 6 to  7 inches.

Is there a way to insert an image?

Thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 21 Jul 2005 01:16 PDT

Hello patbar-ga,

http://img1.photobucket.com/register.php
This is a good place to upload your picture of this wonder food. It's
free but you have to register.

~ czh

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Clarification of Question by patbar-ga on 21 Jul 2005 08:47 PDT

I have made a sketch of the 'Eiffel Tower' which can be viewed at:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/patbar/EiffelTower.jpg

It was not 'hollow' inside - it tasted like an omelet.

Hmmmmnnn....anyone know a chef who would have been in NY at that time
who would remember how it was done?

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Clarification of Question by patbar-ga on 22 Jul 2005 10:17 PDT

Thank you, 'rainbow'.  I called 'Mom's' restaurant, but unfortunately
their 'Eiffel Tower' is just a regular omelet - not cone-shaped...

So thye hunt goes on....

We need to find someone fom New York City who remembers the reataurant
and how they 'created' it.  I was wondering if it was done he way they
do Dutch pancakes.  They fry them first, and the put them in the oven
- perhaps like a soufflé, where it would rise in the oven before
serving!

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Clarification of Question by patbar-ga on 23 Jul 2005 12:04 PDT

To: pinkfreud-ga

Thanks for that comment.  I had thought of a meringue possibility with
cream of tartar, but all we saw was the chef in the window cooking it
in the little pan - and onlookers were scratching their heads as to
how it worked. I don't know if the 'baked' it for a minute or so
before serving it - but that sounds like it COULD work. They wouldn't
tell us the secret...

You can't put an image in your question.  The best thing to do is to
upload it to a web server and then post a clarification of your
question with a link to the image file on that server.

Very intriguing ...?
Was the tower hollow?
IF the cook was swirling the mixture around, most of it swirled out to
the edge of the skillet, I could imagine that the thin layer in the
middle cooked and became firmer, and then MAYBE he could catch this
with a fork and slowly raise it, drawing more of the mixture up as it
became firm.
But that doesn't sound like it would work with a "fluffy" scrambled egg mix,
and I don't know if it would work at all.

There's a mention of this omelet here:

"The charming country decor masks a surprisingly complex menu. Sure,
you can get buttermilk pancakes, French toast and farmers' omelets,
but you can also order granola pancakes, Dutch apple French toast,
eggs Benedict, even the Eiffel Tower, an omelet with asparagus,
mushrooms and Swiss cheese, topped with hollandaise sauce."

http://www.nj.com/munchmobile/ledger/index.ssf?/munchmobile/ledger/stories/breakfast_05.html

Rainbow~

The restaurant that serves this omelet is Mom's Restaurant in Ringoes,
New Jersey. Perhaps you would like to  contact the restaurant with
this inquiry.

Contact information:

Mom's Restaurant
36 John Ringo Rd
Ringoes, NJ 08551
Tel: (908)782-8025

I hope that helps.

Best regards,
Rainbow

HI, 

I can't leave this alone  - or it won't leave me alone -  the family
breakfast  cook.  Thanks for the nice drawing of the Ziggurat.
I am sure that there are some better cooks in the community who can at
least comment on or refute my thoughts/questions:

"Swirl of fluffy scrambled eggs":  If the cook was swirling the pan
the whole time, would the scrambled eggs become fluffy?
So maybe the recollection of this is a little faulty (50 yrs ago).

What makes scrambled eggs fluffy?  From the description of the volume,
a 6 in. round base and same height, perhaps maximum 3 eggs, that is a
lot of fluff.

http://www.mrbreakfast.com/article.asp?articleid=17
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/ck_culinary_qa/article/0,1971,FOOD_9796_1696232,00.html
http://teriskitchen.com/eggs/scramble.html

"Tasted like an omelette":  that does help much, unless it is a
suggestion of cream cheese perhaps.  What differentiates between an
omelette and scrambled eggs is the texture.  The former is pretty much
left unstirred in the skillet, which does not seem to agree with the
swirling. But on the other hand, an omelette would seem to be a more
promising way to create such a tower.

That said, the egg-chefs now found at the breakfast buffet in hotels
in Asia pride themselves on producing an omelette that is turned in
the pan until it forms a seamless roll  - but no tower.

Any ideas?  
I expect you all to really put some effort into Sunday breakfast.  :-)

Myoarin  (poached eggs on toasted muffin with butter and liverwurst today)

If the egg whites are beaten (as one would do when making a meringue)
and then recombined with the yolks, it should easy to make a mound of
the eggs and shape it. Such a shaped mound could be baked (again, like
a meringue, at a high temp), producing an "omelet" in the shape of a
tower. That's my theory, anyway; I haven't tried this.