Once upon a time (aka a few months ago) in a land far far away (aka Northern Virginia) I purchased a Nordic Ware microwave egg cooker. I can’t recall where I first heard about it. It’s one of those food devices that seems to have always been around, but never really gets much attention because its too busy doing house chores for its evil step sisters.
Despite the lack of promotion, I somehow noticed this lowly device hanging on a rack at the end of a supermarket aisle. It was all like, “Hey do you like eggs and saving time?”
I love eggs and saving time!
A love of eggs and time* are literally the only two prerequisites needed to purchase this piece of plastic. (*Not to be confused with A Love of Eggs & Thyme, my to-be-published food memoir.)
The thing works well. In about a minute, my eggs were ready for consumption. Only one problem: COOKING AN EGG ISN’T ALL THAT HARD TO BEGIN WITH, nor all that time consuming. With just a touch more effort and a couple more minutes, I could have restaurant-quality fried eggs.
DAMNIT! I’d been gotten by the Marketing Gods again. Or had I?
I remembered that my office at work only has a microwave and toaster oven for heating food. So, as much as I’d love to make an omelette for a weekday lunch, it just wasn’t possible. (True story: I once used a quesadilla press to make omelettes at work. It worked surprisingly well, but the company next door complained because we were apparently brunching TOO hard.)
One afternoon, while I was making a rosemarino ham, white cheddar, egg sandwich, my boss entered the kitchen and was intrigued by my device. I explained to him how it worked and he waited to see how the finished product turned out. As I opened the lid, steam rose out from the perfectly cooked egg.
Like one of those Cinderella type stories where the prince instantly falls in love with a beautiful princess, my boss’s eyes were hypnotized and he was smitten.
Shortly after the kitchen meet-cute, he informed me that he had indeed purchased one of his own and that it met all three of his qualifications for a solid product: (1) It was cheap, (2) it worked as advertised, and (3) it was easy to use.
He shared his excitement with everyone in the office, eager to spread the good word of the egg cooker. He’d proudly walk up to a co-worker and place the egg cooker on the counter. “Know what that is?” he would ask, his sermon cocked and loaded. He would then explain how the device worked, how it met his qualifications for a solid product, and even offer to email them a link to the product page on Amazon. His enthusiasm could be matched by a child in the 90’s on Christmas morning describing his or her favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (it’s Michelangelo of course).
Here’s the thing: I don’t recall him ever showing this much excitement over anything…ever. So, based on the limited data I have on his excitement habits, I can only conclude that the microwave egg cooker is the greatest thing to ever happen to him. His wife seems nice enough, so I mean no disrespect to her, but the data doesn’t lie.
Needless to say, lunches at our office have never been the same and we’re clearly responsible for 90% of the microwave egg cooker sales in Virginia.
That’s the weird/awesome/surprising thing about food: It’s unpredictable. Every meal has a certain mystery and excitement to it. Every food device–no matter how simple–can bring out the child in us. When I casually threw it into my shopping cart, I never would have guessed that my boss would fall in love with this inexpensive piece of plastic and live happily ever after.
I love this story. I’m imagining your entire office fighting for the microwave with their egg cookers. I never thought to get one of those specifically for work. I love eating eggs for lunch, but never thought it was possible away from home. I may have to reconsider.
Thanks Courtney! Yes, there can be long wait times for the microwave at our office…And there is a lot of “lunch envy” when I make an bacon and cheese omelette, garnished with leftover pancakes.
Oh, that reminds me! You can actually cook raw bacon in the bottom of the egg cooker first, then cook the egg in the bacon fat. It’s dangerously delicious.
Love this post – as I said in my tweet, at first I thought you were talking about making crowave boiled eggs but then I realised this was something else entirely. As someone who’s been known to cook eggs, french toast and even pancakes on the sandwich press at work, I’m glad to find a kindred spirit. The other reason I like this post is that it could simply have been a ‘Hey! look at this product’ but instead I got to learn more about your boss and his foibles and peccadillos. The data don’t lie!
🙂 Thanks, Fiona! Yeah, I love to find ways to make work lunches complicated and better than just a plain ol’ ham sammich. And eggs are seriously the best ingredient EVER.
Another fabulous tale. Thank you for brightening my commute American Bread Friend x
Glad to see the blog is commuter-approved! Thanks!
Haha, never thought I’d enjoy a story about an egg cooker so much.
Illustration on this post are awesome! Did you make them?
Thanks, Emma! Glad you enjoyed it. The illustrations were drawn by my awesome wife, @tinacipara
If I drew them, they would all look like Ninja Turtles, ’cause that’s about all I can draw.
We love all of the following:
A) your wife’s clever hand-sketched illustrations (including but not limited to the one of our Egg n’ Muffin maker
B) the way in which you were able to weave a captivating tale about cooking eggs in the microwave. We usually get bored with product reviews, but this one just kept ushering us deeper and deeper into the plotline. Bravo.
and
C) how much your writing made everyone at our company laugh and smile.
So, thanks for taking the time to pen this awesome piece. You made our day.
Sincerely,
jenny & the Nordic Ware team
ps: if you like lox or smoked salmon, try adding a bit of cream cheese or crème fraiche and fresh chopped dill to your egg mixture before cooking. Drape the results with slices of lox, pop it onto a toasted bagel, and…boom. Tough to beat. (bonus points if you remembered to bring capers or red onion to work to top it off with)
Jenny & Team Nordic Ware – Thank you so much for the kind words! We’re glad you enjoyed the post as much as we enjoy the egg cooker. And we’ll be sure to add some lox, dill, and crème fraiche to our next grocery list (my work folks will be very jealous).
Evan, I love this story and the illustrations! Amazing and so not surprised that it caught the attention of Nordicware! I agree with you about that one kitchen utensil that we all love. Mine is my immersion blender, I would take it to work but fear the reaction of the guards at The Pentagon if that day I was subject to a random check.
Thanks, Jessica! We have an immersion blender that is still in its package 🙁 So, I don’t think we’re utilizing its full potential…