You like watery eggs?

Toast, eggs and coffee or tea is quite standard breakfast food pretty much anywhere in the world. In Western countries, you may even choose how you would like your eggs cooked: sunny side up ("fried" in some places), scrambled ("crumbled" at a restaurant in Cambodia), omelette, poached. I have not heard of anyone eating hard boiled eggs for breakfast - yet!

In Singapore and Malaysia, two soft-boiled eggs for breakfast is traditional. For a while, there was a health trend going round in America, saying that soft-boiled eggs were the healthiest thing to eat for breakfast. I thought that most unusual because I have never heard of anyone eating soft-boiled eggs in the west. I am quite sure that trend has passed, as do all trends for that matter.

When I saw this sign (picture above) advertising a breakfast set of "two watery eggs", toast and coffee or tea, I had to laugh. If I did not know what soft-boiled eggs looked like, I would not be inclined to try eating "watery eggs". Just the phrase makes me think of uncooked eggs, which are watery. For that matter, it takes skill to make good soft-boiled eggs.* Not cooked long enough, the eggs are very watery and not fit for consumption.

The picture of the breakfast set shows a plate of yellow liquid with some black streaks in it. To the uninformed, that is how you eat soft-boiled eggs the Singaporean and Malaysian way. First, you knock open the eggs onto a saucer. Add some white pepper and soya sauce (the black streaks). Use a teaspoon to break open the yolks and stir the mixture around. Drink up the liquid straight from the saucer (direct to your mouth) or use the toast to mop up the egg and eat.

I was pleasantly surprised to know that my Latin American friend eats her sunny side up eggs with toast! I have had breakfast with her several times when she would use the fork to break open the yolk carefully, then dip the toast into the runny yolk to eat. Before eating, she would always apologise to the others at the table, saying that she was taught to eat that way from young. (I suppose some cultures may be offended by this.) I never thought that a culture so different from mine would share such a similarity!

Regardless of how you like your eggs, my point is that the description of the breakfast set does not make me go, "Yum! I want that for breakfast!" The stall holder should have checked with English-speaking people before putting up the sign for "watery eggs". Good copywriting does make a difference in sales.

Have fun learning English and how to eat eggs!

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*Recipe for soft-boiled eggs:
Place two uncooked eggs in a large mug.
Pour in enough boiling water to cover the eggs nicely.
Wait exactly 13 minutes.
Remove eggs from the mug, break them into a saucer, add some pepper and soya sauce, and enjoy!