The French Egg

I just returned from a family road trip in France. Although we visited scores of historic sites and cathedrals, I admit that the primary focus of our vacation was culinary. We ate local boletus mushrooms and pates in the Perigord region, mussels in La Rochelle on the Atlantic Coast and aioli and bouride (a fish soup) in Provence. We made sure to try the local and regional specialties of every town we stopped in. I was blown over by the oysters, truffles and delicious chocolates we ate throughout the trip, but in the end, I was the most enamored of the humblest food: The Egg.

Before my trip, I never gave the egg a second thought. I've always considered it a rather uninteresting food- a vehicle for other flavors and spices at best. I'm not fond of the hard-boiled egg with its rather gray, powdery yolk, and my experiences with rubbery, bland omelets have not been much better. The only eggs I ever truly liked were scrambled ones, but I would only touch the ones my mother made.

After a bite of my first omelet in France, however, I swore I would never again think of eggs in the same light. The texture of the omelet was incredibly silken and the flavor was rich, but clean tasting. There wasn't the same heaviness that I often associated with omelets in the United States and the taste of the eggs came through without being weighed down by the addition of excess ingredients. I continued to eat omelets all the way through France.

Maybe it is the quality of the eggs or the butter that they use, but the French are incredibly gifted in their omelet making capabilities. I was also impressed by the mayonnaise that we ate while we were there. In fact, all egg based dishes that I tasted in France were nothing short of incredible. Mayonnaise is a condiment that I avoid at all costs at home, but in France, I eagerly jumped to order anything that included it on the menu, especially the rouille sauce, a specialty of Provence, which is a bright red, spicy version of mayonnaise and is traditionally served with the local fish soup.

Now that I have returned a transformed college student, I have not only vowed to treat the egg with more respect, but to learn how to prepare the perfect omelet and homemade mayonnaise. Today, I destroyed my lunch while attempting to follow the instructions on Gourmet magazine's website for the "Classic Omelet". Somehow I ended up with a half- scrambled, half-moon shaped disaster. However, I have high hopes for tomorrow and another day of omelet making. I even promise to include some egg based recipes on the blog (but only after I have slightly better results).