Eggs

[Pan]

I am looking for interesting uses for eggs (in cocktails, as a garnish, non food-related uses...), unusual recipes containing eggs, or people who devote their lives/careers to eggs.

These can be any type of eggs - chicken, ostrich, snake, turtle, quail, fish (caviar and roe)...

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Shrimps and crabs taste wonderful during the season when the female ones (obviously ) have eggs. I'm not sure whether there are recipes using the eggs specifically -- anyone know?

As for turtle eggs, the huge leatherback turtles (locally called penyu) that used to teem on the shores of Terengganu, Malaysia (on the East Coast of the Peninsula) have become virtually extinct in large part because the locals ate the eggs (but also due to development, etc.). Interestingly enough, the locals, who are generally quite devout Muslims, are forbidden by their religion to eat reptiles, but managed to reason that while turtle meat is haram, turtle eggs are somehow halal. When I was living in a coastal village in Terengganu in the mid 70s, I tasted a penyu egg. The large white was very phlegmy and the small yolk was intensely salty. I was never tempted to try another.

[Lindacakes]

There's a problem with the Ridley turtle going extinct in Costa Rica because the eggs are sold in bars, to be drunk raw as an aphrodesiac.

Most interesting use of eggshells: went to see an exhibit of fairy houses at the NY Botanical Garden. In one of the fairy houses, small pieces of broken egg shell were glued to a miniature kitchen backsplash to approximate a tile look. Very effective.

There's your "blown" egg for Easter, and your Ukranian hand-painted version. There's your Greek hard boiled eggs baked into a bread braid.

There's little hard boiled quail eggs offered as bar snacks . . .

Chocolate filled egg shells . . .

I'm picturing some sort of egg pie in which eggs are cooked into a souffle-ish thing, and then broken open and eaten, just a fantasy . . .

Some culture out there must be eating embryonic birds . . .

[zpzjessica]

yes, some cultures do eat embryonic, and newborn, birds. i believe it's called balut - someone please correct me if i'm wrong...

[ludja]

Below is quote from Truman Capote's book, "Answered Prayers". I think it may be a fictional dish as I could find no mention of it on the net. I used this quote as my sig line for a time.

"He tutted his tongue..."[souffle] Furstenberg is a great nuisance. An uproar."

Delicious, though: a froth of cheese and spinach into which an assortment of poached eggs has been sunk strategically, so that, when struck by your fork, the souffle is moistened with golden rivers of egg yolk.

"An uproar," said Ina, "is exactly what I want," and the proprietor, touching his sweat-littered forehead with a bit of handkerchief, acquiesed.

[Ann_T]

I bought two dozen eggs Monday from a local farmer and every egg so far has been a "double Yolker".

[zpzjessica]

what are the odds of that happening?

[ludja]

what are the odds of that happening? 

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I don't know, but I also once had a carton like that in which almost all the eggs were double-yolked. It was kind of freaky!

Edited February 22, 2007 by ludja (log)

[DCP]

yes, some cultures do eat embryonic, and newborn, birds. i believe it's called balut - someone please correct me if i'm wrong...

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Indeed it is called Balut. Eaten in the Philippines and elsewhere in East Asia, it appears to be an acquired taste. Photos and more information (not for the squeamish) at Deep End Dining, Wikipedia, and Weird Meat. *shudder*

[DCP]

I'm a big fan of tea eggs. Haven't found a particular favorite recipe yet, mostly because I haven't been able to make them as strongly-spiced as ones I've eaten elsewhere. Basically, simmer hard-boiled eggs in water, soy sauce, ginger, star anise, dried red chili pods, and black tea - yum!

[suzilightning]

yes, some cultures do eat embryonic, and newborn, birds. i believe it's called balut - someone please correct me if i'm wrong...

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and if you are a falconer and live near a chicken farm - ranch?- you buy or are given the newborn males that are discarded to feed and train your birds.

[Domestic Goddess]

Balut is a wonderful! Of course, it is an acquired taste (much like durian). Balut is often given to newlyweds (especially the groom) for making the "knees strong" (sexual euphemism inserted here). I just love slurping the broth and eating the rich, custard like yolk with sea salt. Aaaah... perfect for midnight snacks.