THE EGG, THE HINDI, AND I

A RESTAURANT REVIEW in The New Yorker, January 30, 2023, and an article in The New York Times, February 6, 2023, got me thinking about eggs. Here are tasty tidbits from each, together with my usual Internet sleuthing.

Origin. Wikipedia says, “Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years…. The chicken probably was domesticated for its eggs (from jungle fowl native to tropical and subtropical Southeast Asia and Indian subcontinent) before 7500 B.C.

Current Egg Prices. As reported by Pamala Parker, ABC7 News, January 16, 2023, “The deadly avian flu outbreak in the U.S. isn’t the only reason why supermarket shelves across California are often seen to be bare. Inflation, legacy supply chain problems, holiday demand and a longer lead time needed to restart egg laying flocks have all contributed to rising prices and lower availability.”

A Reality Check. Dani Blum writes about eggs in The New York Times, February 6, 2023, “They’re expensive, difficult to find and myths about them abound on social media. Here’s what to know.”

Blum notes, “Eggs can’t catch a break. They’re scarce on store shelves. If you do manage to track some down, you may have to shell out considerable cash, as eggs reach record prices. An avian flu outbreak in the United States killed millions of hens last year, eliminating a critical egg supply.”

“And now,” she says, “a frenetic flurry of misinformation is being volleyed between pro- and anti-egg camps on social media. To Joe Rogan, eggs cause blood clots. To some on Twitter sharing screenshots of the abstract of a scholarly paper, yolks can ward off Covid.”

Health authorities yield solid information: “Eggs contain vitamins B, E and D, and they’re low in saturated fat… They also contain nutrients that are beneficial for your eyes and bones,” Blum reports. 

“There’s really more pros than cons,” says one dietitian. “Eggs are getting a lot of the spotlight,” says another, “but they’re one small piece of a dietary pattern.” 

“And,” Blum recounts, “there isn’t substantial evidence that eggs protect against Covid, or any other disease, experts said.” One told her “We’re looking at reality and balance, not fear-mongering and scaring people.”

Meanwhile, in India…. I learned interesting tidbits about the egg in India from Hannah Goldfield’s “Tables for Two” article “Artful Indian Dishes, at Eggholic,” in The New Yorker, January 30, 2023.

“In the early nineteen-eighties in India,” Goldfield recounts, “an agriculturist named B. V. Rao founded the National Egg Coordination Committee (N.E.C.C.) to protect poultry farmers, not to mention consumers, from traders who bought low, ignoring rising production costs, and sold high. Among the committee’s first orders of business was rehabilitating the image of their product, an ingredient largely left out of the average Indian’s diet.”

“Americans… eat around twice as many eggs as Indians,” Goldfield notes.

“Rao hired an advertising agency to devise a national campaign to drive interest in the egg,” Goldfield writes. “Ads enumerated its nutritional benefits and offered recipes for egg chaats and egg biryanis. A television spot featured the wrestler turned actor Dara Singh delivering a catchy jingle that went ‘Sunday ho ya Monday, roz khao ande’: ‘Be it Sunday or Monday, eat an egg.’ ”

Apparently the campaign had mixed success in the homeland: “Since the nineteen-eighties,”Goldfield says, “egg dishes have become a major draw at Gujarat’s night markets—though not without controversy: some Hindus consider eggs to be meat, and in 2021 Ahmedabad [the largest city in western India’s Gujarati state] banned the sale of eggs (joining meat and fish) on the street.”

No Problem in Queens, New York. Goldfield reviews Eggholic, an Indian restaurant located in Foral Park, Queens. She says, “Though the setting suggests fast food (the dining room is reminiscent of a bright, clean McDonald’s), the staff offers a warm, personalized experience, and the kitchen turns out a dizzying array of casually presented but artfully executed egg dishes.”

Though Floral Park, Queens, is a vast continent away from me, I’m encouraged to attempt concocting several of Eggholic’s specialities. Goldfield describes, “A thin ‘floating’ omelette, its surface golden brown and caramelized, is plump with sharp white Cheddar and bathed in a thick tomato purée seasoned with ginger-garlic paste and a proprietary Eggholic medley of spices (cumin and coriander surely among them).”

Yum.

“Many dishes,” Goldfield observes, “including the Egg Bhurji, scrambled with chopped Thai chili, tomato, onion, ginger, and garlic, are spicy. To offset the heat, there are flaky roti and thick wedges of buttered white toast, plus cold bottles of Indian beer….”

Count me in; I’ll have a Kingfisher, please. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2023