When walking down Orchard Road the other day I saw a fire engine with it's lights flashing blocking off two of the car lanes, I then noticed several men clearing up something from the road
Looking a bit more closely it became clear that the men from the civil defence force were trying to shovel hundreds, maybe thousands of smashed eggs from the road and into bin bags. It looked a terrible mess and must have been quite a sticky job, it caused much amusement in the local press and on social media the following day
Later that week I went shopping and eggs were on my list. I hoped the recent egg-cident had not affected what would be available, I needn't have worried, there were plenty of eggs on the supermarket shelves.
I often buy eggs at the local market where there is generally a small but perfectly adequate range available.
In the supermarket it's a different matter and that day it struck me what a huge choice of eggs could be bought here, many of them unfamiliar to me.
There were several different brands selling what seem to be the usual chicken eggs, I presume these are from 'battery' hens. Most of the eggs are imported from Malaysia but there is one local supplier that produces 11% of Singapore's daily egg supply
Then there are the ones that come from kampongs. Kampong is the Malay word for village so this implies a more rurally produced egg
Then there are several different brands selling "1st Born Eggs". Before moving to Singapore I had never heard of first born eggs and had to look up what this means, apparently this refers to eggs laid by new hens in their first month of egg production and some claim they have a higher nutritional and lower cholesterol content due to being laid by young hens
Then there are eggs that are higher in Omega 3 or 6. These are produced when the hens diet has been enriched with omega fatty acids
Next there are "carrot eggs" which I also looked up, these hens are fed with alfalfa or marigold petals which then produce yolks with a high lutein content. Lutein has antioxidant properties and protects eye, skin and heart health
Free range eggs seem to be quite hard to find but there were eggs laid by cage free hens
On the other hand quails eggs are easy to find both in the supermarket and the wet market and are generally cheaper to buy here than in the UK
Then there are the rather more' unusual' eggs, such as salted eggs
Salted eggs are chicken or duck eggs that have been soaked in brine or packed in damp, salted charcoal paste for preserving, this gives the egg white a salty flavour after being cooked
And finally (as far as I could tell although there might have been more varieties but I was worried that the supermarket staff were getting suspicious of me taking photos and I didn't want to be arrested!).. are the "preserved" eggs also known as Century, Hundred Year Old or Thousand Years Old eggs.
So with this bewildering choice of eggs on sale it's not egg-actly easy choosing!
