Friday, December 08, 2017

An Egg-Boiler!


There are many mornings when I crash the BFF's welcoming living space and set up the MacBook there to work. One morning, I was completely distracted by her pink egg boiler that was happily bubbling away. I didn't even know she has one! She was all like, "Eh this came back with me from Shanghai. Didn't you notice it?" Clearly I didn't.

I want one too! There's a Cuisinart boiler that's quite cool, and so is the one from Gourmia. But it's those that look like plastic toys which are fun! Apparently there're many cute ones on Taobao (淘宝网的小熊鸡蛋器挺可爱的). I don't need an egg boiler, to be honest. I boil eggs fine in a pot. Or a kettle. Muahahaha. Do excuse my silly enthusiasm. Eggs are my staple food. Bring on the yolks!

Singapore doesn't quite allow 'organic eggs' on sale in the strictest sense. When those labels appear, it probably means that the chickens are on a diet of organic feed or eat a special feed of nutrients, which doesn't translate into 'organic eggs'. Cage-free eggs don't mean anything here either since it's impossible to verify unless you appear at the farm. And I don't own a yard big enough for hens to run about. Neither are we allowed to rear hens and roosters in residential estates. The point is, buy local eggs, that’s the only assurance to freshness since that is measurable in the Haugh unit, and it’s what our regulatory board (AVA) looks out for next to hygiene at local egg farms.

Meanwhile, the BFF raved about eggs in the boiler. She just bought them from the wet market. She said that the market stall Aunty told her these were 'first-born eggs'. Well, first-born eggs are laid by new hens in the first month. I really can't tell. What I do care about, is newly-laid eggs. There is a marked difference in the taste of newly-laid eggs versus those that have been sitting out for some time. If you could get to the wet market that just received new stocks from their suppliers, then those would taste pretty good. It's quite hard to judge when a supermarket brings in stock. Try to catch those new stocks!

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