Eggs are a perfect food, which explains why they are beloved in every culture across every continent. Rachel Khong has curated a lovely homage to this food in Lucky Peach All About Eggs: Everything We Know About the World’s Most Important Food. It is a cookbook, but also so much more. Contributors include chefs, authors, bloggers, bartenders, and many mothers and grandmothers, who share their recipes, memories, experiences, and love for eggs, in so many forms.

“People eat eggs everywhere. But how did this happen? Why did this happen? When did eggs conquer the world?”

Read this book cover to cover; you will find science and history interspersed with personal recollections and revelatory dishes, and you will be surprised and delighted with what you find. As you peruse the section on omelets, you may laugh that one chef warns that a true omelet takes at least half an hour to make, and should be saved for very special occasions; while the next recipe comes from a man who holds the Guinness World Record for omelet-making, and can whip out 427 two-egg omelets in that same amount of time! Each story, and each recipe, is a pleasure to read. The recipes span the globe, from Asia to Europe to North and South America and every point in between; many recipes have similarities, but with their own regional quirks. Each recipe is accompanied by a picture of an Egg, from various birds, displaying the vast variation and beauty of nature’s perfect packaging. At first, I was disappointed that there were no pictures of the recipes as well, but in the middle of the book is a beautiful Recipe Picture Menu, which contains photographs of many of these iconic dishes. Eggs are not single-meal subjects; there are plenty of recipes to try, for Breakfasts, Desserts, or really any time of the day. Pick up this lovely little gem and enjoy the wonder of eggs!

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