THE EGG AND I

I could never have imagined that one of the many unique aspects about living in the Netherlands would be eggs. I have written about the many challenges of grocery shopping and the different way that the Dutch approach food. The only reason that it is considered different is because it is not how Americans do it.

Eggs are a very simple and yet brilliant food. Everyone in the world knows about eggs, I would imagine. But I did not realize that two countries have unusual ways of dealing with eggs.

In America, eggs are in the refrigerator section of the store, along with the dairy products. When eggs are brought home, they are usually kept cold. That is the way it has always been done, and I never questioned this practice.

But here, the eggs are not in the cooler of the store. I have seen eggs in the produce section and in the baking section.  Just sitting there on a regular store shelf. When eggs are purchased, they are kept in the kitchen, but not in the refrigerator. You would only keep them cold if you were going on a trip, and not using them right away.

You cannot buy a dozen eggs in the Netherlands. You can buy six eggs or ten eggs, but not a dozen. I still think I am getting a dozen eggs and cannot get my mind around the fact that there are only ten in the carton. By the way, you can even buy a carton of four eggs or even twenty.

The absolute best thing about Dutch eggs is that they are fabulous. They are brown eggs and the yolk is a very bright yellow and they taste wonderful. I have noticed that the egg shell is tougher than I am used to, but I am told that it is because of what the chicken eats. I don’t really care, I just know that they are organic, free range, and brown fantastic eggs. There are white eggs available, but most of the eggs sold are brown.

Every single egg has been stamped with a code, that tells us what farm it came from and how the hens are housed. Leave it to the Dutch to have even their eggs tattooed.

By the way, I want to make a note about the title of this post. The Egg and I is a wonderful movie made in 1947. It stars Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert, and they are both very funny in this adventure of city folks moving to the country to start an egg business. Trivia: this movie introduced Ma and Pa Kettle, and they were so popular in the film that they got their own series of films. The Egg and I  is on dvd and is a lot of fun.