Romance with Eggs

Source:Google

During my growing up days, every holidays Mom took me to her brother’s house in Pune. That used to be her favorite destination. She enjoyed meeting her relatives and travelling around the city. I accompanied mom only to Pune city, but once there at my mamma’s house, I was left at home with my cousins.

I was very close to my cousins and we used to play together all day and sometimes late nights. Many times, when the elder went off to sleep, we would sneak out and go eat egg burji during late nights as late as 1am. There was one such hawker near the Pune railway station who made very tasty burji. He use to make on a large tava, stir frying onions, tomatoes, green chilies and coriander leaves in spoonful of butter. After a minute of stir frying he would break open the eggs on the top of masala and harshly mash up and mix. He would serve with buttered pav. It used to be great treat.

Surprisingly, we used to be hungry at all times of the day, and with our limited pocket money, egg used to the cheapest non-vegetarian dish.

Sometimes during evenings we used to go for half-fried eggs with sunny side up. With salt and black pepper, we would relish this with hot cup of cutting chai.

Source:Google

The romance with egg has been deep rooted and when I migrated to Spain, I discovered tortilla. In Spain, tortilla is very common and can be had cold (many people even take it for picnics) and it is also served in Spanish bar as accompaniment with drinks. Tortilla is the egg omelets that is made of the deep fried potatoes, mixed vegetables and also include olives, fish and meat. I had learnt to make Spanish omelet from my maid and this is my favorite must-have egg dish which I serve when I have guests. The whites of the eggs are beaten till fluffy before adding the other ingredients. It is made in a big pan and it is flipped at least three times to enable to cook from inside. I have a special cover, which is slightly larger than the pan, and makes the flipping and sliding it back into the pan easier.

Even the simple egg dish with just salt, if fried like a pan-cake and stuffed between the toasted bread, tastes delicious. I still remember the egg sandwiches that I used to feast on at the arrival lounge of Santacruz airport.

During my national tours, whenever we stay in the hotels, I always look forward to egg omelets that are served during break-fast. There will be variety of food that will include cakes, croissants, and Indian spicy breakfast like Idli-Sambar, Puri-Bhaji, but I always head towards the live-egg-preparation-desk where I choose the ingredients while the chef prepares a perfect omelet for me.

Except for Spanish omelet, I have never really learnt to make an egg dish, I just fried it without any experience and it turned out fine, but there are many people out there who still don't know how to fry an egg. How do I know that? Well, why else would there be tutorials on egg recipes? huh!

Okay I am hungry again…maybe I should go for boiled egg salad……