One of the best things about living on the coast is having breakfast while viewing the amazing beaches and bays. On National Eggs Benedict Day we are reminded of the many breakfast breakfast options in the area and the many styles of Benedict served along the coast.

WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE LOCATION: VOTE BEST BREAKFAST SPOT IN GULF SHORES OR ORANGE BEACH

So how did the hollandaise covered eggs begin? There have been many who take credit but most credit the hangover sure theory. Back in 1942, a retired New York stockbroker named Lemuel Benedict gave an interview to The New Yorker magazine in which he claimed he walked into the Waldorf Hotel 48 years earlier in 1894 looking for a cure for his morning hangover and reportedly ordered “buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon and a hooker of hollandaise.” According to this version of the story, the maître d’hôtel was so impressed with the dish that he put it on the breakfast and luncheon menus, but substituted ham and a toasted English muffin for the bacon and toast.

Now there are so many versions of the dish, mostly substituting your favorite base item under the eggs. Many locals along the beach like to use crab cakes, fried shrimp or crawfish cakes. No matter what we use, it is the hollandaise sauce and the timing by the chef that make everything blend so well.

Some variations involve replacing the Canadian bacon, such as lobster benedict, corned beef, or steak benedict. In other cases the bread might be changed from an English muffin, to toast, sliced potato, or a biscuit. One popular variation is to replace the Canadian bacon with smoke salmon, and it has gather a large number of names from Eggs Royale, Atlantic, Montreal, and others, and some regions have a local name for this variation.

In the south there is another version to mention. These are the components for the Southern Eggs Benedict. The base, instead of English muffin, is fried green tomatoes. The protein, instead of Canadian bacon, is Pulled Pork BBQ. The rest is traditional both with the egg prepared any style and topped with classical hollandaise sauce.

Along the beach the crabcake version seems to be the most popular. However you like yours prepared, happy Eggs Benedict Day!