“How do you like your eggs, Sir?”

This weekend we indulged one of Karen’s little passions, and something I have grown to love as well: going out for breakfast.

For the English, cooked breakfast (Full English), as glorious as it is, seems to be something that few would have outside their own homes. Yes, there are always a few dilapidated greasy spoons and now chain pubs offering cooked breakfast, but it never seemed to me to have a place as a meal that you absolutely have to eat out. By that I mean fish & chips, pub food, curry, etc.

In America, on the other hand, there are whole chains (most famously IHOP) which specialise in breakfast foods, from eggs, sausage and bacon, to cakey American pancakes, to French toast, and omelettes. These establishments are comfortable, casual and reasonably priced, all great components making it possible to share a relaxing weekend morning with the people who matter. The free coffee refills don’t go amiss either, to be honest!

So it was that we found ourselves in our local IHOP on Saturday. I’d just ordered, then came the inevitable question “How do you like your eggs, Sir?”. Those of you reading on the other side of the pond are probably wondering what could be so hard about choosing between fried or scrambled eggs.

Alas, this is not the half of it :-) As you will soon notice if you spend a while here, freedom of choice is a real defining characteristic of America. Some of the restaurant menus and supermarket shelves will make your head spin!

This means there are at least 5 possible ways to answer the above question, which I always forget entirely in the heat of battle…

Sir may have his eggs either:

Sunny side up: what we uneducated heathen refer to as a ‘fried egg’!	Over easy: shorthand for ‘turned over once’, to lightly cook any of the white which is still raw on top.
Over medium: flipped and cooked until the yolk is gooey, not runny.	Over hard: flipped and cooked til the yolk is hard – no point, surely?!
Scrambled: no explanation necessary…

So then, I hope you go away from this feeling enriched in some small way :-) I may (we can hope) at least be able to order my eggs at IHOP from now on without looking like a total halfwit !!

Mark