Scarlett

Rex, I think that was uncalled for.

I haven't heard of raw eggs on pizza, but then I am still relatively untraveled, unlike many people posting here. But while I dislike the basic texture of a raw egg, I love the salads in Paris with runny eggs on them.
I never consider germs when eating eggs, but then I do not eat meat for that reason, so call me wacky!
I think this is an interesting and fun thread, I wish some would keep it to the topic and not make it personal.

GSteed

Update..Who remembers the question, "One egg or two?" (in your malted milk). Another phrase, "What do you want, egg in your beer?". Next time I at my favorite pizza restaurant I will quiz the server about raw eggs on pizza.

ira

This afternoon, for lunch I am planning. along with my pizza with a raw egg on top, some steak Tartar, with another raw egg on top.

marktynernyc

with all this talk about raw eggs I'm making pasta carbonara tonight - a bit of pancetta (okay, a lot of pancetta) some onion, cream (heavy cream), some pecorino romano and a couple raw egg yolks.

cmt - there's nothing wrong with personal likes and dislikes (hope I didn't come across as criticizing you) - there are some cuts of meat in Chinatown that I wouldn't dare put in my mouth (yet)

Regarding germs though - I reminded of the people on planes wiping down every surface near them with Purell - a bit over reactionary I think. A friend here in NYC is all hung uip about detoxification - I suggested he consider moving out of NYC first .

Ira - very funny.

Therese

"Yet eggs seem to bring out the worst in people. They inspire Therese, for example, to make the incredibly arrogant, patronizing, belittling comment that people who won't eat raw eggs might simply take their own food from home."

You think my closing comment that one might avoid raw egg by bringing food from home was bad? What I was going to write originally would have sent cmt positively around the bend, as I was going to suggest that the diner, when threatened with an egg-bearing waiter (probably lurking just behind her, trying to catch her unawares), leap from her seat, throw her body across the table, and shriek, "No, no, not an EGG..." Don't worry about potential embarassment: Venetians are used to tourists and their quaint ways.

Anyway, it wasn't the eggs that brought out the edge (particularly acute to those force-fed raw eggs as children, what in hell were your parents thinking?), it was Martha's original post: it struck me as funny, and the ensuing "eggs are great/eggs are horrible" thread a bit surreal.

We all have things we don't like or can't eat, and avoiding them at home or when traveling is just one of those things.

Enjoy your pizza in Italy, Martha. We liked Ae Oche in Venice: a big friendly place with an entirely separate non-smoking area (I had kids with me) and ingredients on pizzas were very clearly listed.

Sue_xx_yy

"...the great number of people who know nothing about food."

Indeed, Wesley, I must agree: many people even today know little, far too little, about food. And although much improved, history tells us that the Europeans were no different. In 1789 a group of French people with far too little knowledge of food marched to Versailles, where they protested as much to the inhabitants. Despite Ms. Antoinette's best efforts to educate them on the relative merits of cake - or was it raw-milk cheeses - - they fed her and her husband to the guillotine in the Place de la Concorde.

Ever since then governments world-wide have been curiously reluctant to dismiss the merits of producing food for the masses, i.e mass food production.

hopscotch

Ira and Marktynernyc:

I'm sorry to inform you that you are going to die, as will all the rest of us some day.

And Ira, thanks for the mention of steak tartar. That is another great dish abhored by most Americans. The best one I've had was at a French restaurant with some business clients in Orange County California. When the waiter brought out the plate of raw hamburger he proceeded to add the raw egg and spices at the table and then placed it in front of me. The guys from Kansas looked astonished. One of them asked, "Well, ain't ya gonna cook it?"

KS452

Gosh, I think another Ramos Fizz is in order after reading all these posts!

cmt

OK, Therese, I see what you mean. http://www.olives.co.nz/images/olive...ck-enh-500.gif (For the record, my father was always at work on those mornings when I had to drink raw eggs.) As for raw egg breakfasts, I wouldn't wish them on a dog, http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/L..._calendar.html , but then, left to their own devices, my dogs try to eat even worse things than that.

By the way, one of my friends commented that I shouldn't be so horrified at raw eggs, considering that I'd eaten raw pork two years ago in Milan. I did, really. I had arranged to meet an acquaintance from an Internet forum (not Fodors) and we were having dinner at a restaurant in his neighborhood. The waiter/owner had shown us the fish he was going to cook for us, a nice practice that was familiar to me from some restaurants in Greece and Italy and a Chinese restaurant at home. So when I saw the raw sausages on the table, I thought he was just showing them to us before cooking them, too. But he left them sitting there alone for five minutes, ten minutes. I asked about them. They were to be eaten raw. And they were pork! My friend ate it, so I ate it, out of a combination of politeness and curiosity. I figured my trip was almost over, and when I got home two days later I could ask my doctor whether there was some preventive wormer I should take to kill any trichina larva, similar to the once-a-month heartworm pill my dogs take that will kill worm larvae before they have a chance to grow and cause heart damage. No such worm pill for humans. But my doctor told me that he would've eaten it, too, and that trichinosis is rare or nonexistent in pigs fed a good vegetarian diet under sanitary conditions, and that raw pork from healthy animals isn't any more dangerous to eat than raw beef, which lots of people eat. All this has nothing to do with eggs, but I thought it might be interesting. When I told this story, some people couldn't even stand to hear it, because they were so horrified at the thought of my having eaten raw pork sausage. How silly--it's not as if I'd eaten a raw egg or something....

ira

>How silly--it's not as if I'd eaten a raw egg or something....<

Or a raw oyster

marktynernyc

hopscotch -
steak tartar is not hamburger but ground sirloin - very different types of meat. Pastis, over in the Meatpacking District, makes a great verison of steak tartar. And yes - I know I'm going to die some day - there's a bicycle messenger out there with my name written on it.

ira -
remember when people thought pork chops had to be cooked to the point of drywall consistency? A little pink in my pork doesn't bother me a bit.

ira

Yes, mark.

I think it was the result of reading "The Jungle", by Upton Sinclair.

cigalechanta

http://www.drlam.com/A3R_brief_in_do...gs.cfm#RawEggs

Alot of people feed raw eggs to dogs . It gives them a lustruous coat.
Yes, the steak tartar at Pastis, I hear is very good.

icithecat

So I take it that deep fried cockroaches are out?

Patrick

"Alot of people feed raw eggs to dogs . It gives them a lustruous coat."

Now I know why my hair is so thick and shiny. But why do I have this uncontrollable urge to chase cars?

cigalechanta

I don't know, but I hear yor bark....

icithecat

So that is why my hair is thining and dry. But if I start eating more raw eggs, will I start chasing my own cats?

cigalechanta

Could be visa versa...mew!

hopscotch

marktynernyc

I've been told that steak tartar in France is actually horse meat.

ira

Not in the 5-7th arond.