Marcus Can Blog

 “You have to know what you want when you reach the end of the line…” – Andrew Zimmern, Bizarre Foods host. 

I’m one of those who consider breakfast as the most important meal of the day. I can skip lunch, dinner and whatever snack there is, but never breakfast. I don’t know if this is a common occurrence, but I become grouchy most of the time I miss it.  I just realize that this may be the reason why I’m one grumpy driver on my way to work and becomes grumpier when I learn that the sweet scent of a good breakfast I smell at the parking lot is after all foods comparable to a piece of cr*p (pardon the word) once I reach the canteen.

So what is it with breakfast that makes me crave for it everyday? Well for me a typical breakfast always includes coffee and egg. Then these two may be combined with longganisa (sausage), hotdog, tocino, corned beef and spam, just to name a few…a few of the oily ones. Sometimes fish and veggies are preferred although I consider these two as a need-to-have just due to health reasons. If only my taste had to be followed, fish and veggies won’t be any near my breakfast menu.

As weird as it may seem, I enjoy watching movies that has scenes of people having breakfast whether in their own home or inside a restaurant – be it a local or a Hollywood film. And to make it even weirder, one of the scenes I won’t skip in my favorite movie Ronin is the part wherein one of the assassins cooks egg for the group. It’s either I’m enjoying the car chase and gun exchanges or just the thought of having great sunny side up with some assassins.

You see I have a fascination with perfectly cooked sunny side up eggs. I can’t exactly recall how long I’ve been into this (obsession) but I know that it has been years since I started trying to mimic the well rounded sunny side ups of McDonalds (or Jollibee). I’ve been stubborn enough though to admit that this perfect egg can’t be done without the help of an egg ring or any other things to attain its shape.

To prove how serious I’ve been with what others will consider a trivial part of a breakfast preparation, I’ve actually spent time and money, fortunately not a fortune…yet, on this search for the ideal sunny side up. I have tested and bought several things to achieve my goal:

1. Teflon frying pan – failed. I’ve tested varying stove settings to see if the egg will cook differently, but to no avail.
2. Microwaveable egg cooker which shows on its box 4 heart-shaped (it’s not rounded but as long as it’s perfect, I will go for it) sunny side ups – this one not only failed to meet the promised result, but the egg tasted bland and feels like rubber.
3. I tried poaching the eggs with the expectation that once I drop it on the boiling water, it will miraculously attain the coveted shape. Instead it appeared as an egg lacking its crab and corn mixture. (I consider trimming the edges as cheating)
4. One day, I chanced upon a couple of egg rings in the grocery store and at that moment it looked to me like a foolproof way to finally have breakfast with a McDonalds-like egg. Right after I break the egg though, all hope was gone when the egg white leaked like water from the sides.
5. A smaller Teflon frying pan was my last purchase hoping that its size will make the egg form perfectly. It did but the top side does not cook well and it led me to flip it in the end which destroyed the form as a result.

My egg tools: 1. Egg rings 2. Microwaveable egg cooker 3. Mini Teflon frying pan 4. Teflon frying pan

With those above mentioned methods or tools, all of which I consider a failure, I’m continuing my search for a promising sunny side up and hoping that someday I’ll start my day with a lovely egg I could proudly say I personally cooked to complement the brewed coffee and other breakfast menu that goes along with it. Hopefully that day will come before we welcome another tiny family member at home…else I’ll be forced to serve either scrambled or boiled eggs to this small guy – ‘coz father can’t cook sunny side up? Hahaha.

Sunny side up SNAFU

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Postscript:

Just right after I finish this blog, I suddenly remember why I haven’t checked the internet if someone is as desperate as me. Well, I guess I may not be alone after all as I discovered this after typing: how to do a perfect sunny side up.

Anybody want an egg meet?