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One of the jokes in the TV series “Portlandia” was that crafty Portlanders could punch up their DIY projects if they’d “put a bird on it.”
Here, chefs punch up the Instagram quotient of a dish by putting an egg on it. In the question of which came first, the egg craze or Instagram, I suggest the latter.
I joined IG on Oct. 12, 2010. Back then we didn’t know what IG would become, and for two years I didn’t touch the account. I didn’t snap my first egg photo until April 7, 2013 — a chawanmushi amuse-bouche at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
Coincidentally, it was about that time that I started noticing the ubiquity of the egg in real life, across every type of cuisine and restaurant, both high and low. I have photographed so many egg dishes that at one point I considered starting an IG account just to document the glory of eggs in all forms. Sad to say, the name “TheEgg” was already taken.
That people love eggs is a given. A friend of mine sets out hard-boiled eggs at every party, and as a sociological test observes who snaps them up. Almost everyone, she says.
Alas, I have had to curb my own egg preferences for the sake of art and the permanent record. The bright yellow and white “eyes” of a sunny-side-up egg are just so much more attractive on a loco moco than the flat white blanket of an over-easy egg.
Here are a few egg dishes I have enjoyed over the past few years. See the above gallery.
Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.