A Small Tribute to Coddled Eggs

I was eating my coddled egg this morning and felt ridiculously happy. The day had already begun quite well. I forced myself awake at 6 AM and ran down Nob Hill to the gym so that the evening was free to watch our dear gun toting Alaskan Governor make an ass of herself on National television. I took the cable car back up the hill as the day was breaking over the bay. I chatted with the cable car driver over the not-so melodious jinggling as the turquoise waters of the north bay came into view. At the top of the hill I jumped off the car and bolted towards my quaint and lovable new studio, holding my breath through the stinky hallways (I like to tell myself the already exorbitant rental price would be even higher if they painted the walls and replaced the moldy smelling carpet) I thought, what could possibly make the morning better than a coddled egg?

As I enjoyed my egg, I fell into a deep contemplation about the current state of coddled eggs. Are they a distant memory of the past? Are they extinct? Was anyone else in San Francisco enjoying a coddled egg at this very moment in their equally tiny and old fashioned studio? I feared they fell out of favor in the Carter administration along with a feasible energy program and true oil conservation.

I grew up with them, my mom grew up with them, but is the rest of the world bereft of this small pleasure?

First of all, many of my most vivid morning memories involve coddled eggs. My tow-headed older brother- a gourmand from the beginning- invented “egg stew” which was always a breakfast favorite. This consisted of chopped up soft boiled coddled egg with generously buttered toast that was ripped into tiny bits and tossed in with the egg to soak up the yolk and compliment the dish’s soft texture with a little crunch. Not only did we fight bitterly over who got the most egg stew, we perpetually drove my mother nuts by making her late for meetings with the deep involvement of creating egg stew. Now maybe you can’t relate to this BUT, a couple words on why you should love coddled eggs:

1. The name of course. Everyone likes the idea of being coddled, even when we pretend to be adults. I even like being coddled when only a couple years before I thought both coddle and swaddle meant to paddle someone violently with a blunt object. Under said pretenses , I might have threatened a certain blond friend about swaddling and coddling her with an oar on some menacing early and dark morning.

2. They are made in beautiful porcelain coddlers. They are egg shaped and usually have colorful and ornate designs like orchids or birds.

3.They are the same as hard or soft boiled eggs, except you don’t burn your hand when peeling the hot shell, you just simply crack a raw egg into the coddler, boil it in hot water, scoop the egg out of its coddler and voila! There is your eggie. Bon apetit et bon matin!!