When preparing an edible egg there are many of ways to serve an egg.
Restaurants, fast food outlets, cafeterias and such all prepare eggs to their specifications and recipe name. That’s all well and good, we can live with this and we do. Eggs Benny, scrambled, poached, fried etc. Yummy!
Political eggs, on the other hand are entirely different. Unlike regular farm eggs, they don’t need to be graded. They don’t appear in any store except for a city or municipal hall setting. Organics don’t play any part in their development.
For the most part, locally, there is only one way to prepare them and that recipe is not for publication. Even it were, the “taste” might still be the same. Unlike real eggs that can be checked for freshness, political eggs cannot. We know that real eggs, if not fresh, can be discarded, thrown out, or otherwise dealt with. They have a shelf life that is short. Not so with political eggs! They stay on the shelf for up to four years. These same eggs are prepared, for the most part, in one limiting, unappetizing way — hardboiled and yes, relatively flavourless.
Here in the city, we currently have a carton with less than a dozen eggs in it. The carton is hardly ever opened so as to give us a look at the state of the eggs in it.
Unlike real eggs, before they leave a store, one can examine the carton to see the condition of the eggs. If they don’t look appealing, they have a strange odour about them or there are some with cracks, we can leave them and select another carton that suits our liking. Those that are less appealing may be thrown out or generally discarded. Not so with political eggs!
We might think that we opted for a perfect carton, however, very often we find that there are cracked eggs in that carton and that there is somewhat strange odour to them. Nonetheless, we are stuck with those eggs for three to four years.
What does it all mean? For one thing, it means that the political eggs aren’t going to change anytime soon. It means that those eggs will, in all probability, maintain their composure and appearance and continue to be prepared in the hardboiled way. Unlike real eggs, they may well be flavourless or cracked, nonetheless, they will be on the shelf for the duration.
Is this sad or what?
Ron Barillaro
Penticton
