Green Eggs and...

Duck Egg
Originally uploaded by ajkinik.

We swear by our local boucherie. Chez Vito (5180 St. Urbain) not only offers the highest quality cuts of meat, including an impressive array of organic meats, they're also the friendliest butchers either of us have ever met. These guys are so nice I'd buy anything from them. A couple of weeks back we noticed they had a special on eggs at the front counter. Turns out they were duck eggs. We asked what we should know about duck eggs and within a few minutes we'd gotten the whole picture: they don't give off that smell that chicken eggs give off when you fry them, they're lower in cholesterol than chicken eggs, the yolks are bigger than chicken eggs, and people who are allergic to chicken eggs generally don't have any problems with duck eggs. The most interesting part had to do with the green eggs, though. Some of them had this beautiful pale green hue to them, and we were told they were the most flavorful ones. When we got back home we had a 1/2 a dozen fresh duck eggs with us, including two green ones.

It's true, their yolks are more flavorful than those of your standard chicken eggs. They reminded us of the kind of chicken egg yolks we experienced in Germany: bright orange and rich in taste. We were less crazy about the whites: we found them a bit too light, lacking in character, even a bit rubbery. That pale green color sure was beautiful, though. We had fun just admiring them.

aj