VHS with movie Moonstruck we got it across the line, under the counter, from the owner of a local video club with the note that the copy is of course pirated but excellent, it was 1988, and we fell in love with both the film and the wonderful Italian breakfast that Olivia Dukakis, who plays mother.
We prepare their breakfast for dinner, and it can also be for lunch and whenever.
Of course, I'm not going to retell the movie, anyone who hasn't seen it should definitely watch it. I'll just say that Cher falls in love with Nicolas Cage who is her fiance's brother. Fiancé is a good choice even though he's unrelated, and Cage isn't unrelated at all, but he doesn't seem like a good choice.
In the end, however, everything is resolved in the most desirable way possible, and Olympia Dukakis makes a weekly Italian breakfast for the family. Cage was also invited to the table.
It's a famous scene in the movie.
There are more famous ones, in my opinion all of them featuring Cher and Nicolas Cage, and above all she in the heat of the bakery while Cage in a plain white undershirt bakes bread, or the two of them in the box of the Metropolitan on Bohemians, or Cher in the confessional, or Cher again while Olympia Dukakis her mother tells her everything there is to know about men in two sentences, or Olympia Dukakis while she is having dinner alone in an Italian restaurant - they are all phenomenal.
So, breakfast: we called it munstrak, and later I've seen it called eggs in a hole, which I think is so literal that it totally negates the spell.
Olympia takes a slice of bread, as far as I know, up to two centimeters thick, an egg and tomato sauce, and she also needs a piece of butter, and salt and pepper.
He cut a hole in that slice of bread. Melt the butter in a Teflon pan, then put the bread on it. Crack the egg, and carefully place it in the bread hole. Salt and pepper. Fry the bread until golden brown, then carefully turn it over.
While this is baking, heat the tomato sauce in another pan. And then put it together: put the bread with the egg on the plate, pour the tomato over it, and serve.
This is the base, which of course allows for any upgrade. To me, tomatoes are nice and lively, just warmed up in a dry pan. Or prosciutto under all that. Or hot sausages. Whatever.
When did we next watch? Moonstruck, it was on some television. And only then, on a normal copy, did I see how beautiful Cher actually is and how phenomenal Cage looks in the reflection of that fire from the stove, and how irresistible their breakfast is. Fortunately, enjoyment is always welcome.
