All Hail the Quail!

~The quail egg has been associated in my mind as a luxury item, something you only see on cooking shows or in fancy restaurants. I had always been curious about these petite little eggs, and if I would be one of those lucky people to ever try one. And this morning my luck was stricken! Yesterday at the Downers Grove Market, I had stopped by a stall that was selling microgreens and quail eggs. I had originally stopped for the microgreens, which I didn’t end up buying, but those adorable tiny eggs and their speckled spots were staring at me.

I asked the men behind the stand what a quail egg tasted like compared to that of a chicken egg. One of the men replied that they tasted similar to a farm fresh chicken egg rather than an store-bought egg, and they had a creamier yolk. He also showed me a pair of scissors that he uses to crack the eggs. You essentially cut the top portion of the egg and dump the contents into the pan. The other man had said that the eggs they were selling that day were just harvested the day before, making them the freshest eggs you could possibly get your hands on. And that’s exactly what I did.

Fast forward to this morning: I pulled the dozen eggs out of the fridge and my mom and I were admiring and giggling at the cute little eggs, my mom even said that they looked like chocolates. I selected 3 eggs to cook over easy with the bagel I had in the toaster. Much to my surprise, those little buggers were difficult to open! I first tried to crack them like you would a chicken egg, but the shell just crumbled on the counter. But then I remembered the technique the man at the stand showed me, and I used a butter knife to scrape the top off and dropped them in the pan.

Some shell pieces ended up in the whites, but that’s okay. I kept the pan on medium low heat, but in my vain attempt to flip the eggs with grace, I ended up frying the eggs rather than achieving the delicious runny yolk I wanted. But nevertheless, they were sumptuous. The yolk was indeed creamy and the texture paired well with the toasty bagel. It’ll take some practice, but I’ll eventually get that runny yolk.