The Egg Story

Eggs were banned in our house!!! I never knew how to eat eggs till probably I was 12 or 13. There were a couple of reasons for this. One we come from a vaishnav lineage so are not supposed to eat onions and garlic too, leave aside meat. Secondly, we lived next to a gujju family and just their stare would kill you, if they smelled eggs or meat cooking in the house.

Ironically, my grandfather used to entertain a lot of Britishers (pre-independence) when he had just got married. I was told that my grand mother served them some interesting stews then. Ahem!!!! Is there something wrong that we had done to follow the rules? Anyways those were the rules and now there are none.

I think I remember, when (probably) was the first time I ate eggs. I was probably 12 and my grandmother was off for her vacation at some friends’ house. And mom, on that day, decided to make some bhurjee and bread for dinner. I could understand that she too loved them a lot and was waiting for a break from grandmother, so that she could cook eggs. Since then, eggs have been on breakfast / lunch / dinner / desserts on almost a daily basis.

I have eggs in various forms. My go to egg dish is a quick soft masala omelette or the poro (omelette in parsi). Bhurjee (scrambled eggs) became dinner for me almost every day when working late and you had nowhere else to go, specifically with the limited budgets one had. You can check out some of my egg recipes.

Some of the egg dishes I came to love

But some of the egg dishes I have had, have been unique and innovative. These have mostly been eaten on street side joints or in proper restaurants but all of them stand out.

Boiled Egg Butter Masala

Starting off with one of my latest experiences. A street cart or truck, in Bavdhan, which sells all kinds of egg dishes. It’s rare that I go to a bhurjee cart these days, but I dared to go as his cart was clean and looked and felt good overall. A little later I got to see his skills on the girdle too.

After a couple of visits, the next time he told me that, he will treat me to something special. I instantly, said yes.

He de-shelled two boiled eggs, cut them vertically and fine enough to hold themselves in a gravy. He put about 200 gms of butter on the girdle and added Maggi Masala and some salt and red chilli powder. He then added the boiled eggs.

The eggs were floating in something I would call “Butter Masala”. Served with pav it turned out to be delicious no doubts but made me feel guilty as well. Knowing very well that a walk will not suffice, I may need a few good sprints the next day.

Anda Welcome

There is another popular bhurjee place in Pune just opposite Garware college called Reshma Bhurjee center. I have never understood the reason for naming a shop as “center”, when actually it was located in a corner. Bad joke 😊

This bhurjee place is known for its innovative egg dishes and is quite known for them too. One of his dishes gets a mention in my list.

Anda Welcome is a Spinach based recipe with boiled egg topped with poached egg white. It looked good with a thick bright green gravy and egg white all over the top.  This looked good and tasted quite different with a lot of garam masala served with the choice of bread you prefer.

Spinach has this ability to enhance the taste of whatever it be mixed with like chicken, mutton, egg, paneer etc. I myself have tried quite a few mixes with spinach and it always turned out nice. Only thing I did not like about this specific preparation was that it was way too hot on the tongue. Filled with green chillies, it could put a small town on fire.

Eggs Kejriwal

One Mr. Kejriwal, living in Mumbai, would not get to eat eggs in his house possibly because of a similar situation that we were not allowed. He decided to ask his club to make it for him. So, the club,custom made an egg dish for him and put it on their menu with the name of Eggs Kejriwal.

I like the story behind this dish. More than that I like the preparation of this. Toasted bread layered with a slice of cheese. Topped with a fiery mix of onions, tomatoes and green chillies, partially cooked. Layered with a sunny side up egg again sprinkled with a lot of red-chilli powder. You might have to call the fire-fighters for your tongue.

Eggs Kejriwal has been picked up by quite a few new-age restaurants and served for breakfast or snacks.

AndaGhotala

Ghotala in local Mumbai language means a mess or a scandal. This is exactly what this dish means. A very tasty mess of eggs.

This dish contains boiled eggs, poached eggs and sometimes fried eggs too. Now, do you get what I mean by the mess? Having said that it is a popular dish in restaurants and street side vendors both.

Onions and tomatoes are cooked with masalas till nice and red in colour. This paste is mixed with grated hard-boiled eggs and mixed well. A fried egg is added to the mixture. Followed by breaking an egg into the hot mixture and allowing it to cook in that heat of the masala onions. Served with a pav, this dish packs a punch and a lot of calories too.

I sometimes like the way we Indians like to put all our ingredients into one and take pride in calling it a ghotala (another word for a scandal).

The above is just a few and am sure there are quite a few out there, which I have yet to taste. I have certain of my own egg creations; I make an egg curry in the famous sindhi green masala. I just love egg pakodas. The nargisi kofta or scotch eggs are on top of my list. When it comes to eggs this list will never end. All I can say at the end is to repeat the much cliched line “Sunday ho ya Monday, roz khao andey”

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