For the love of eggs

During the '70s, it was a common scene in the wee hours of the morning that a lone man in lungi, with a muffler tightly wrapped around the head and his ears, would carry a cane basket and peddle eggs. He was the only soul in the streets at that ungodly hour. 

A knock on our door and I remember taking out a soiled Tk 1 note from my father's wallet and running to greet him. One piece of egg was sold at 0.25 paisas at that time, as opposed to today when the price of an egg is Tk 13.30.

It was fluctuating between Tk 15 to 16 just a couple of weeks ago. 

How have times changed and with it the nostalgia surrounding the 'dimwala'! 

I am a fan of the traditions and rituals of yesteryears. I find the present dry and curt with no time to pause and take a breather. Just see how the simple act of buying eggs has changed so drastically over the years! We now go to supermarkets and get our cartons or egg boxes of omega-and-vitamin-fortified eggs.

I mean advancement and development are not bad although the dimwala lost his job and the box makers ensured theirs.

Recently, with the egg price hike news doing the rounds, I came across a fact that the Bangladesh Egg Producers Association announced -- about 3.5 crore to 4 crore eggs are required daily to meet the national demand. That is quite a lot of eggs per day and these mostly come from farms across the country, giving the local industry a boost.

"I am selling a dozen eggs for Tk 160 now and it fluctuates according to the market price. I buy my stock from a supplier in Gazipur at high prices; my profit margin for one egg is between 0.60 to 0.80 paisas. I am selling each egg at Tk 13.30 plus now. I used to make a profit of Tk 10 to Tk 12 by selling a dozen eggs. Now, it has stopped from Tk 5 to Tk 7," said Sarwar Hossain Sohel, a grocer in Uttara.

Prices increased by 14.58 percent in the past month and 22.22 percent in the past year and the Bangladesh Poultry Association blames the corporate syndicates for the price hike; even though the government is conducting drives across the country to control egg prices.

These price hikes that we are cribbing about did not dampen our fondness for eggs; we are merrily cracking them for cakes, cutlets, French toast and all.

Personally speaking, I was not fond of eggs until I started to run my own kitchen and I stumbled upon the greatest finding of the egg kind -- the jammy eggs.

A jammy egg is somewhere between a hard-boiled egg and a soft-boiled egg, where the egg white is fully set like that of a boiled egg, but the magical difference is in the yolk. It's slightly set on the edges where it touches the white but soft and jammy in the centre.

Egg dishes are so diverse and each one is almost like soul food, the ordinary omelettes or mumlets as called locally jump to a different level when it is stuffed with tomato, spring onion, mushroom and cheese. It makes a fine sandwich filling for butter-toasted bread. The mumlet wrapped in crisp paratha at the roadside hotels, or the Michelin star recipe of eggs benedict; eggs are loved in every form.

Eggs are not only a staple source of nutrition in our diet but also an all-important ingredient in the kitchen. There are so many everyday recipes that need at least an egg to bind.