Simple Orange Basil Egg Salad

Egg salad speaks to me of old fashioned diners….actually, one step further old-fashioned luncheonettes.  I’m betting not that many people under the age of 40 know what the word luncheonette even means anymore.  And now that I’m thinking that, it makes me sad, and wanting to do something about that.

I grew up my early childhood in Manhattan, and there was a luncheonette just a few blocks from my apartment which I went to occasionally with my grandmother.  It had a long counter with tall stools covered in I think red leather that spun and spun if you kicked hard enough, and booths along the opposite all, also with leather covered banquettes and formica tabletops banded with silver metal.

I cannot remember the name of my kids’ math teachers, but this apparently deserves a permanent spot in the old gray matter.

I remember sometimes having grilled cheese, often having jello for dessert, and occasionally having a half cantaloupe stuffed with cottage cheese because I thought that is what sophisticated ladies who were watching their waistlines ate.  I think it was even called something evocative like, “The Dieter’s Plate.”  Oh my goodness….

And I definitely remember there being egg salad.  And Im certain it was very classic, probably not much more than eggs, mayo, salt and pepper, maybe a bit of mustard.  This is still what my mom and my sister order often if we are at a diner.  A good egg salad is just hard to pass up.

Everyone in my family is always up for a variation of egg salad, too. This Simple Orange Basil Egg Salad would have been eyebrow-raising at the luncheonette some 40-cough years back, but it sure got eaten in 2018 at my house.

Heap it on crackers, grab some bread or toast and make a sandwich or eat it out of the bowl.