Best Corned Beef Hash in New England
Hash. How does a mixed up combination with humble beginnings, based on a French word meaning "cut in pieces," cease up on menus around the globe, with creative versions served in restaurants, diners, and cafés all over the East Bay? Hash is, but put, a comfort food, consisting of ingredients you may find lurking in your refrigerator right now.
However, several local eateries have both enhanced the traditional dish of meat and vegetables and perfected it, in a diversity of means. Nosh has done a bellyful of exhaustive research to introduce, or re-introduce, readers to the ways of hash: a hearty meal any way you want it.
But first, a piddling history. Hash has been around in America since the 19th century. Originally served in inexpensive hash houses (the dish came first, the proper name came later), information technology was fabricated using leftovers from the traditional New England boiled dinner of beef, cabbage, potatoes and onions.
Corned beef gets its name from the large-grained rock salt (called "corns") used to preserve meat. The name "hash" is from the French hacher or haché, meaning chopped. The variation called Ruby Flannel Hash (no beef, simply beets and other vegetables) has some rather questionable origin stories, involving actual ruby flannel being added to the dish during a cold New England winter.
While traditionally served as a breakfast or brunch item, it'due south 1 of those "any time of mean solar day is good" choices. Regional variations abound, but in that location is some uniformity of ingredients: chopped or cubed corned beef, potatoes, onions, and other vegetables mixed together and fried. Somebody somewhere has designated Sept. 27 as National Corned Beef Hash Day. We volition mark our calendar. In the meantime, in that location was enquiry to be done.
Sequoia Diner
The biggest hash surprise was the duck variation at the Sequoia Diner in Oakland'southward Laurel District. We were lucky to snag the final serving — new to the card, this dish has been extremely popular. Sequoia also offers Cherry Flannel hash (garnet yams, roasted beets, butternut squash, red potatoes and onions), and a traditional beef hash with braised beefiness, potatoes and onions. The duck hash is made with confit duck leg, leeks and garnet yams, and includes long, tender shoestring-similar potatoes, same as the ones prepped for hash browns.
The key to a tasty hash is to allow the unlike ingredients to shine, even though they are mixed together and fried. The chopped pieces of everything should be distinct, only no single 1 should boss. The yams should stand out as yams, the potatoes every bit potatoes, etc. They nailed it with the duck hash: a crispy and flavorful innovation. We were offered the opportunity to substitute a "beautiful biscuit" for our toast. We did. (Pro tip: become the beige, and inquire for all the things—butter, honey, jam—that make the melt-in-your mouth biscuit even more beautiful.)
With iii options, this is a terrific way to try several types of this satisfying and delicious dish. Good luck getting the duck! Sequoia Diner, 3719 MacArthur Blvd (virtually Brown Avenue), Oakland.
Mama'due south Regal Café
Oakland favorite Mama's Royal Café offers a hash featuring Niman Ranch corned beef brisket, with spud, onion and bell pepper, topped with ane poached egg. The beefiness was in Wordle-square sized cubes, with some tomatoes and carrot pieces added to the mix.
We were pleasantly surprised that the peppers didn't overpower the other ingredients. The pieces of corned beef were well-baked effectually the edges, a nice contrast to the soft yet business firm texture of the other ingredients. We chose rye bread for our toast pick, and the generous portion of nighttime rye paired well with our hash. One egg is but perfect. Unlike its near namesake in Albany, Mama's Imperial is open up and doing well.Mama's Royal Café, 4012 Broadway (nearly 40th Street Way), Oakland.
900 Grayson
The little gray house on the corner, 900 Grayson in Berkeley, serves our current favorite version of hash, called the Tom Boy, named later a favorite chef. This corned beef hash is fabricated with potatoes, apples, and parsnips.
In that location's something almost this combination that makes us continue wanting to come back for more. Comfortably seated outdoors on a late winter morn, nosotros appreciated how the warm apple compliments the chewy/crunchy cubes of beef and the flavorful but-right potatoes. In this dish, the whole is greater than the sum of its simple parts.
Another crucial chemical element is the poached egg. Here, forth with the other places we visited, the yolks burst with the barest bear upon of a fork. It'due south hard to play favorites with so many excellent choices, only the apples are clutch hither. 900 Grayson, 900 Grayson St. (nearly Seventh Street), Berkeley
Sam'south Log Cabin
At historic Sam's Log Motel in Albany, they serve a very traditional corned beef hash: considerable size pieces of tasty corned beef with seasoned potatoes and onions.
Sam's has been around since 1930. If it looks like it'south made from Lincoln Logs, information technology'southward because is sort of was: congenital from a Sears Roebuck home kit. According to its website, Sam'due south has been a "speakeasy, a roadhouse and an off-track betting joint with a directly line to the rail at Gold Gate fields." The restaurant has lots of outdoor seating, which is something we consider when making a option of where to go to eat these days.
In the terminal couple of years, Sam's has added to its outdoor seating, so yous tin enjoy your hash (or whatever) in the dorsum garden. If you lot desire to go for the tried and true version of this dish, Sam's is an excellent option. Sam'southward Log Motel, 945 San Pablo Ave. (near Solano Artery), Albany
Aunt Mary's
Another Oakland favorite, Aunt Mary's, features a Fall sweet potato hash, offered on weekends only. (Difficult as it was to resist ordering the cheesy grits here, we stayed on track with our mission to seek out hash options.)
Aunt Mary's version is made with good-size pieces of roasted sugariness white potato, carrots, and butternut squash, along with fennel, mushrooms and leeks — all topped with 2 eggs. It's a precious stone-toned dish, resplendent with fall vegetables blending together to brand a colorful whole. Hash is any you want information technology to be, and this one highlights the sugariness of the private elements. Also, another peachy beige. Aunt Mary's, 4640 Telegraph Ave. (near 47th Street), Oakland
A special shoutout to Berkeley's Rick and Ann's (2922 Domingo Ave., virtually Russell Street) and its North East: with fresh red beets, sweet potatoes, new potatoes, blood-red onions and bacon — so named, we imagine, because of hash's New England roots. Although at that place are many excellent choices on the carte du jour, we always wind upward ordering this dish (hold the sour cream, please) and taking one-half of it home. It'southward the quintessential version of Red Flannel hash and highly recommended for anyone who isn't agape to swallow beets for breakfast. You merely live once.
We would be remiss if we didn't bow our heads for a moment in memory of the incomparable Maryland Breakfast at Bette's Oceanview Diner. Non to become too maudlin, but this was, in fact, our terminal meal at Bette'due south but days before information technology closed.
The menu describes it simply as "house-made corned beef hash with poached eggs and choice of muffin, toast or cream scone." Sitting outside the eating house, watching the passing parade on Quaternary Street, we thought about all the times we'd been to Bette's over the years — sometimes with friends, or sitting alone at the counter watching the difficult-working cooks produce their wondrous soufflé pancakes, scrapple, home fries and all the balance. We didn't know it would exist our terminal chance to marvel at the skillful, solid version of this dish with its crispy on the outside and tender to bite into corned beef.
A grace note, perchance: When it turned out the huckleberry muffins were no longer available that day, the other option was a "doughnut muffin." Bold it would be good for a nibble or two, it turned out to be only nigh the best thing e'er. Bette'due south is gone, merely we'll always have Maryland.
Source: https://oaklandside.org/2022/01/31/best-breakfast-hash-oakland-berkeley-east-bay/
Post a Comment for "Best Corned Beef Hash in New England"