I is for Itlog
"There was nothing...which did not understand the wonderfulness of what was happening to them...the immense, tender, terrible, heart-breaking beauty and solemnity of Eggs." - Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
Yes - eggs, or itlog, can be beautiful, solemn, and innocent. Not to mention creamy, versatile, and tasty with nearly everything. Burnett's reverent language about eggs was paired with a love of eating them. Her child characters Colin, Mary, and Dickon spent pages feasting on roasted eggs with clotted cream and crumpets.
If there's just one thing in common between The Secret Garden's English country food with Filipino cuisine, it could possibly be a love for the many ways of itlog.
Eggs make their presence known in Filipino home food, eaten as tapsilog (a breakfast or anytime pairing of tapa meat, rice and egg), tortang talong (eggplant with eggs), bittermelon and eggs, and straight up eggs over garlic fried rice. When I cook up a red chard fritatta topped with long slices of golden fried garlic and green onions, I like to imagine its a Fil/Am itlog dish, too.
Chilling with the chicks.
Maybe I am also writing about eggs because I have yet to unpack a defensive pride about eating what could be the most Filipino of eggs, balut. With a quick Google search, there are dozens of articles about balut, many of them from the "dang-I-just-vomited-in-my-mouth" level of cultural sensitivity as NBC's Fear Factor. The show called balut a Filipino "horror" with a "terrible stench that just won't let go." One contestant claimed they would never replicate the experience again, even for $50,000.
If only every balut-loving Filipino could win $50,000 for every balut we'd ever enjoyed...
Its true that balut is delicious to many and that it is a cost-effective alternate source of protein also eaten in other places including Vietnam and China. And its also true that at the most basic level, people won't always "get" each others' food. I mean, as a kid, when I roasted eggs in our family's toaster oven ala the Secret Garden, my dad joked that the slightly sulfurous smell was making the house into a giant utot (fart).
But the dig on Filipino food on network TV brought up the remembered shame of being the POC kid who had anything but PB&J at school lunch and hearing "eeww" all around. I think I actually brought balut to school for lunch once - and then got scarred for life.
Some may argue towards culinary racism, others may say all foods are fair grounds to praise or diss. As for me, I'll just let Doreen Fernandez take it home - and say please pass the balut.
"Whoever discovered balut stumbled onto the fact that food has changing excellences (taste, texture) as it evolves and develops. Thus between the egg and the full-grown duck, there are stages that bear exploring-and eating. And the Filipino has explored them." -- Doreen Fernandez in "The World of Balut"
More On Eggs:
How Does the Filipino Breakfast?
Anthony Bourdain Eats Balut (B for Effort)
Fried quail egg, or Kwek-kwek