Sam Vimes Would be Proud

I make it a habit to try foods from time to time, especially if I thought it was yucky before — just to make sure.

When I was a kid, the concept of fried rice was appalling to me.  At 17, I got a wild hare to try it again, did, and found I rather liked it.   When I was in my early 30s, I deliberately taught myself to like broccoli and other cooked vegetables so as to set an example for my children.

I was not a steak fan at the time. There hardly seemed any point to the tough meat (Southerners, in their wonderful skill with barbecue, tend to have a bad habit of applying that cooking method to all meats and overcook many meat dishes).  Then I was convinced to try a rare steak.  Oh my word, it was like the clouds parted, the heavens opened and the choirs sang hossanahs.

I’ve always liked my eggs hard-cooked — scrambled, boiled or fried.    The same person who convinced me to try the rare steak also liked runny yolks on toast and laughed at me breaking the yolks on my fried eggs and cooking them all the way through.  On a whim, I made some eggs sunny side up and had them on toast.  Oh my…  The point of runny yolks isn’t the yolks as such, but as a spread on toast.  Tasty.

Of course the next step was buying an egg cup (I found one for $2.50.  That was worth the risk even if I didn’t like the dish)  to try soft boiled eggs and toast soldiers.  I found myself looking forward to trying it today all through my morning swim.   I’m so glad I tried it.  Delicious, I tell you.

If you’re an American, you may never have heard of the concept of a soft boiled egg in an egg cup with toast soldiers.  I tend to think of it as British, having first encountered the concept in Terry Pratchett novels, but I’ve since read that other countries like them, too.   A soft-boiled egg is simple:  the white is cooked, but the yolk is still warm and runny (don’t shudder yet).  You put the egg in an egg cup, cut the top off, shake on a little salt and pepper, then dip strips of toast (soldiers) into the yolk. Afterwards, you just scoop out the white.  Ideally you should have an egg spoon for this, but my normal teaspoon with my flatware worked just fine.

It’s wonderful comfort food and doesn’t take much time to make.