Ande ke mere funde

I just finished reading this write-up on egg cups. It spoke about the different kinds of egg cups, from simple wooden rings to whimsical rooster-shaped ones carrying the cup on their back with wings outspread. The article then went on to describe the correct, or at least the best way to eat a soft boiled egg, with minimal mess. A couple of days ago, I read this incredible recipe for scrambled eggs with tomatoes. When I am reading a book I love imagining the scene the author describes (often in an English setting) about one or more characters having a nourishing breakfast of poached eggs, or bacon and eggs, or a mushroom omelette, and so on. Eggs fascinate me. Fair enough you’d think. Some people have an irresistible weakness for chicken, some will do anything for biryani, some live almost exclusively on burgers.

Where I differ from these food addicts is that I don’t like eating eggs. I cannot stand the smell of eggs. And I once threw up when I was beating an egg for a cake and some of the yolk splashed onto my fingers. I don’t like that slimy feel. Waffles, cakes and pastries are among the few egg-containing foods that I will eat – provided they don’t smell much of egg. Oh, and scrambled eggs too, if they are hot and smothered so much in onions and tomatoes that the egg loses its identity completely.

I just like the look of eggs, not the feel and smell. Eggs look beautiful, the smooth shell, the golden yolk, the transparent white. I remember my housemate at university cooking instant noodles and in the end breaking an egg right into the steaming bowl. The egg would spread out slowly like a sun throwing out its reach, and simultaneously the heat of the noodles would make the albumen go opaque, the whole egg draping itself over the noodles. And sometimes, the yolk would run slightly, like liquid gold. It was mesmerising. And the words associated with eggs – omelette, soft-boiled, crepe, sunny-side-up…

I love watching and listening to eggs. But from a safe distance. The most I can venture to do is hold a raw egg, and perhaps draw a smiley on it. Anything beyond that, I leave to the stronger willed people of the world.