Two Eggs Any Style ... Not!

[huiray]

 I somehow doubt that a Chinese or any other non-western menu would offer eggs any style.

 

 

:-)

 

True.  A soufflé is unlikely, for example, but steamed trembling egg custards or fried eggs of various sorts (besides said soft boiled eggs) would be possibilities. ;-)  Would you consider tan tats (those egg-custards-in-a-flaky-pastry-cup things) as qualifying? :-D

[huiray]

 

Maybe if you ordered a pot of hot water for tea and cooked them at the table would be the way to go, but I think they'd be under-cooked.

 

The way I make my soft boiled eggs is typically to pour hot water (i.e. from the kettle after the water in it has boiled) onto eggs (frequently straight from the fridge, so they are still cold) in a small pan to cover the eggs plus a bit more, cover them, and simply wait about 10 minutes.  This works fine.  In fact, if the eggs are at room temperature or, especially, if I have pre-warmed them with hot water from the tap, they turn out overcooked (whites and yolks solidifying) after 10 minutes standing (i.e. no additional fire/heat from the stove or whatever) and I need to dump the water out after 7-8 minutes and run cold water over the eggs if I want something liquidy.  In cases where I have used less-than-optimal amount of hot water and used very large cold eggs for less than 10 minutes or so I will get snotty eggs with uncooked whites but that is still fine by me - I am not obsessive about this and have a wide tolerance about the degree of "done-ness" of my eggs.  I drink the snotty eggs just the same.

 

If you did use a coffee mug, put the two eggs into it and pour the hot water from the pot of hot water into it (i.e. there was barely enough water to cover the eggs and the volume of same would be that small amount limited to a coffee mug) then yes, you would need to dump the water after a few minutes and add more hot water again (even maybe yet again) otherwise you *will* get very snotty eggs. So - get a large pot of hot water, if you can't get a *large" mug of very hot water in a diner or some such place.

Edited June 13, 2014 by huiray (log)

[annabelle]

Yeah, but you like your eggs grossly underdone.  I'd gag.

 

Anna, you order the toast and cut it into soldiers, silly. 

[Anna N]

:-)

 

True.  A soufflé is unlikely, for example, but steamed trembling egg custards or fried eggs of various sorts (besides said soft boiled eggs) would be possibilities. ;-)  Would you consider tan tats (those egg-custards-in-a-flaky-pastry-cup things) as qualifying? :-D

I would consider eggs made in many ways that I have not yet even dreamed of. What I wouldn't expect to find is a notation on the menu that offers "eggs any style". I am always amazed and astounded by the variety of egg dishes from other cultures.

[Martin Fisher]

Ask for some 1,000 year eggs (or century eggs) and see what they say.

They did say "any style", right?

Maybe boiled eggs will no longer seem like a major project! 

Edited June 13, 2014 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[minas6907]

The next time I go out for breakfast, ill order my eggs in a quiche.

[Norm Matthews]

Once several years ago when I was driving to Seattle, I stopped at a truck stop in Idaho and ordered a Chef's salad for lunch.  The menu said the salad had HB eggs, ham, chicken, cheese, etc.  I would be surprised if they wouldn't have hard cooked eggs for breakfast.  How hard is it go cook eggs ahead of time?  The one I had seemed to have been cooked quite a while ago and/ or held in hot water for a while since the yolk was about as green and any I'd ever seen.  The chicken and ham were processed lunch meat and the cheese was Velveeta.  I didn't feel very for well the rest of the afternoon.

Edited June 13, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

[IowaDee]

Aha. green eggs and ham is on my wish list.

[minas6907]

The local breakfast eateries are going to be hating life when I show up during breakfast service - Im ordering my eggs deviled.

[GlorifiedRice]

I once went to a restaurant, more of a cafe, and ordered the special which was two eggs , toast, hash browns, and juice, but told the server to hold the juice since I didn't want any.  When I went to pay the bill I noticed that it wasn't the price of the special,but the regular.  When I questioned this the cashier, who was also the server, said that the special included juice, and I didn't have any juice, so I didn't qualify for the price of the special.  So, I asked her for a glass of prune juice, drank it, and she corrected the bill so it showed the price of the special.   "Are you happy now?" she asked sarcastically. "I will be in a couple of hours," I politely replied.  To get poached eggs in a place like that, you'd have to order eggs benedict, but hold the hollandaise, hold the ham, and hold the muffins, and it would probably be twice the price of the eggs benedict.

Its like a Seinfeld episode...hahahahaha

[IowaDee]

"No eggs for you" barked the Egg Nazi!  

[GlorifiedRice]

You could also order deviled emu or ostrich eggs or a Thai omelet, that should puzzle the for awhile (sorry Im being silly)

 

[dcarch]

Then there is Balut to be considered.

 

dcarch 

[CatPoet]

And here I can only get boiled eggs with breakfast if there is any eggs.

[Tri2Cook]

Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass why the restaurant won't make boiled eggs, but what bothers me is that the menu says ANY STYLE, and that's outright bullshit.  How about saying something like "two eggs, scrambled or fried," and leave it at that if they won't do boiled, shirred, coddled, baked, etc.

 

I get your frustration with their choice of wording but maybe it wouldn't hurt to give a little tiny piece of that rat's ass concerning why they won't do it. I understand that won't solve your frustration but it may help ease your anger a bit if you knew that, despite their poor choice of words, they simply (for whatever reason) don't have the means to do what you want them to do. That they're not just refusing to do it. It could be something as simple as the new cook doesn't know how to poach/shirr/coddle/soft boil an egg*. Then again, maybe nothing will do but for them to burn the menus and make new ones.

*Laugh if you want but if you think every restaurant has a trained professional or even an experienced cook back there running the show, prepare yourself for some heartbreak. It's entirely possible to learn a menu and the timing involved with the items on that menu through repetition well enough to do the job without having any formal cooking knowledge. You get a job in a kitchen, pay attention, show interest, maybe watch things for the cook while he goes for a smoke during a slow time and one day, when the cook decides to leave, you tell the boss you can do the job. And you probably can... as long as nobody asks for something different than you've been doing. And the easy way out of that situation is "sorry, we don't do/have that".

 

[Ashen]

 Truly, they are a PITA to eat without an egg cup and good luck getting one of those in a diner in NA.  The kitchen can't shell them for you and they're too hot to hold to shell at the table.  Plus, you get bits of shell in the egg.

 

 

 

I thought the same thing myself, that you need an egg cup to eat a soft boiled egg easily.  I was proved wrong while visiting my in-laws.  My MIL eats a soft boiled egg every morning for breakfast and just taps the large end of the egg hard enough on the plate to make a flat spot that lets it sit up quite well.  Obviously wouldn't work with seriously undercooked soft boiled , but if the white is mostly set, it works just fine. 

[Kajikit]

It never would have occurred to me to ask for a boiled egg for breakfast... but then they're not something I eat often. I do usually ask if they can do poached eggs, and the answer is usually yes. Of course, how WELL they're poached is the luck of the draw, but they're usually edible.

[Bill Klapp]

I once went to a restaurant, more of a cafe, and ordered the special which was two eggs , toast, hash browns, and juice, but told the server to hold the juice since I didn't want any.  When I went to pay the bill I noticed that it wasn't the price of the special,but the regular.  When I questioned this the cashier, who was also the server, said that the special included juice, and I didn't have any juice, so I didn't qualify for the price of the special.  So, I asked her for a glass of prune juice, drank it, and she corrected the bill so it showed the price of the special.   "Are you happy now?" she asked sarcastically. "I will be in a couple of hours," I politely replied.  To get poached eggs in a place like that, you'd have to order eggs benedict, but hold the hollandaise, hold the ham, and hold the muffins, and it would probably be twice the price of the eggs benedict.

This thread begins to take on the qualities of the famous Jack Nicholson diner scene in "Five Easy Pieces"...

[CatPoet]

I asked my dear chef friends  about eggs for breakfast in Sweden and if they peel them before and they said no,  they think people  are smart  enough to peel them them self, they will how ever provide a dinner knife so you can slice the egg for sandwiches...

[liuzhou]

I just read a menu which offers 'pan fried sirloin steak cooked as you like it."

 

"I'll have it boiled. please."