Beside the seaside 2.Because I like cooking, I suppose, I tend quite automatically to take note of people's likes and dislikes. Today I learn that not everyone likes eggs. As I buy some quail eggs in the farm shop, the assistant remarks to me: " I have to be in the mood for eggs. I have never eaten quail eggs."
Outside The Compasses, we are talking about wanting to eat less when one is older. We compare notes about the huge appetites of young people including ourselves when we were young. "My Dad was a long distance lorry driver," says Bill. "Sometimes, he would telephone to say he had broken down. He would have to spend the night in the cab. He wouldn't be needing dinner. That was alight for me: there were two dinners in the oven and I had them both."
4 comments:
The photo makes me think of an Edward Hopper painting.
We love eggs, and had quail eggs for the very first time in your home, we remember well.
I love the picture, I enlarged it to maximum size to see the seagull better. I also observe that no one is looking directly out the sea, but to one side or another, or even turned right away from it. I wonder if this is typical?
I would love quails eggs for their prettiness alone, and for the way the shell peels off like paper to reveal a blue inside. Occasionally I fry them to serve as a miniature garnish, on toast or even a small fillet steak! (Fillet steak is usually small for reasons of economy of course, but doesn't shrink when cooked...) I had never had them until coming here, perhaps I will buy some later, now you've reminded me of them.
Enthusiasm for quail's eggs can fall away when the need arises to poach them. This requirement emerged in a three-toque recipe by Raymond Blanc; there is no alternative but to have two chefs and I watched as Mrs BB locked shoulders with Younger Daughter in our tiny previous kitchen, both fiddling about with the hideously over-specified instructions. Nor was the effort worthwhile. The eggs remained adamantly separate from the other part of the dish.
Hardboiled with coarsely ground black pepper they're fine.
M-L, L The difficult thing about the photograph was the constant stream of traffic between me and the promenade. It was the contrasting attitudes of the bench-sitters that appealed.
Quail eggs are pretty, taste and look good and for people with diminishing appetites, are less challenging than chicken eggs or for that matter ostrich eggs which I suppose come at the other end of the egg size spectrum.
BB I've never tried to poach a quail egg. Your description is almost a challenge.
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