PrintExotic Eggs Available at Whole Foods
Now, an emu is a large bird right? And you expect it to have a large egg right? But, did you expect that large egg to look like a giant avocado, thick-skinned and all?
I sure didn't, but was delighted to see one at the Whole Foods on Houston Street. Actually, they now have an entire display of exotic eggs, including quail, duck, and ostrich. All the ostrich were gone, but four avocado-impersonating emu eggs remained for $29.99 each. Above them, 99-cent duck eggs were piled together while the delicate speckled quail eggs were safely encased in plastic cartons. How anyone carries home (safely) just one or two 69-cent quail eggs is beyond me. I wanted an emu egg but decided the schlep home to Brooklyn might do it in.
Has anyone tried these eggs? I am also wondering how many people one emu egg might serve.
Whole Foods
95 East Houston Street, New York NY 10002 (map)
212-420-1320
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22 Comments:
you may just want to check out an asian supermarket that often offers quail eggs and also duck eggs for a lot cheaper. havent found any ostrich or emu in the asian supermarkets though.
frenchvanilla at 11:01PM on 03/03/09
Emu oil is supposed to be really good for you... I knida want to try an Emu egg now.
And yeah, I've never seen quail eggs sold by the piece, always in little mini cartons by the dozen.
simon at 11:18PM on 03/03/09
There was a bit in KCRW's Good Food podcast about emu eggs - "[they're] equivalent to 10 chicken eggs and fluff up nicely when scrambled."
bonus tip - it's pronounced "eem-yew", not "e-moo". (/ˈiːmjuː/, if you're IPA inclined.)
zamboni at 12:40AM on 03/04/09
Ditto on the Asian markets for quail and duck eggs. Whole Foods is way, way more expensive. You can usually get a dozen quail eggs at an Asian market for under 3 bucks.
engill at 2:18AM on 03/04/09
Here in Hong Kong you can readily buy both quail and duck eggs for fractionally more than chicken eggs. Duck eggs are quite rich and make lovely omelets, while quail eggs are amazing hard boiled - so cute, and with a very delicate taste. They are perfect in various appetisers, as well as deviled.
HK Expat at 6:08AM on 03/04/09
Here in Hong Kong you can readily buy both quail and duck eggs for fractionally more than chicken eggs. Duck eggs are quite rich and make lovely omelets, while quail eggs are amazing hard boiled - so cute, and with a very delicate taste. They are perfect in various appetisers, as well as deviled.
HK Expat at 6:08AM on 03/04/09
69c for a single quail's egg! Here in England I bought 12 for £2 ( ~ $3.50) and served them as appetisers soft boiled with homemade celery salt. I was quite pleased with them actually.
wicheda at 6:26AM on 03/04/09
There are people that carve emu eggs for fun. It's crazy: http://tiny.cc/tP7K4
FullBelly at 6:54AM on 03/04/09
I can't believe how much those quail eggs cost! Here in Korea, I pay about $1.50 for 16!
driftingfocus at 7:57AM on 03/04/09
They have the same set up at the Whole Foods here in Toronto. It has always puzzled me too. How am I supposed to get thoes eggs home?
doyouloveanapple at 10:06AM on 03/04/09
The other day I was at my local asian market, and I noticed that they had eggs labeled "Baby Duck Eggs" and "Baby Chicken Eggs" that were in a different area from the rest of the styrofoam-packed chicken eggs.I was curious about the duck eggs, but too nervous to buy them because of the labeling. Would these actually contain an embryonic duck or chicken, or is this just a quirk of labeling??
peachfish at 10:10AM on 03/04/09
In Australia there are tons of emu eggs that people carve and sell. Also there was an episode of Top Chef when one of the chefs made a quiche out of an emu egg and it came out really gross.
kikidebris at 10:13AM on 03/04/09
I know of at least one blogger who is not so fond of emu eggs:
http://blog.nataliedee.com/index.php?page=21
PrettyNicola at 10:40AM on 03/04/09
I know someone who used these eggs. She was on Top Chef and knew nothing about them and got sent home because her dish sucked.
dineomite at 11:22AM on 03/04/09
How long do you boil a quail egg to get it soft-boiled?
bltzie at 12:50PM on 03/04/09
I'm pretty sure the egg on Top Chef was an ostrich egg.
simon at 5:26PM on 03/04/09
peachfish- Several years ago a friend of mine tried to buy a "baby duck egg" at a small, family-run Asian grocery store. They kept telling him that he would not like it and they wouldn't sell it to him. He kept probing for a reason why, and they told him that it was basically a preserved, dead, partially formed embryo still in the shell. I love going to ethnic grocery stores and trying new things, but that's something that I have always been fairly content to just leave on the shelf.
Zachary at 12:09AM on 03/05/09
I've never eaten an emu egg, but they're actually very cool little things. I carve eggshells, and emu eggs have multiple layers in the shell. And the different layers are different colors, so it's even more interesting.
intricategirl at 6:54PM on 03/05/09
Duck eggs are fabulous. May the good Lord keep me away from Baby Duck Eggs or Baby Chicken Eggs, because I know they would freak me out. And how do you soft-boil a quail egg? Personally, I would place an egg in a tea strainer, immerse it in boiling water for 20 seconds, and see if that did the trick...oh, and immerse it in ice water just afterwards.
annien at 10:04PM on 03/05/09
Hi SE NY:
About the Baby Duck eggs–I was forced to eat one on Sunday mornings as a child. This gruesome task of breaking a hot egg into a bowl made my skin crawl. A fully formed steaming duck would plop into the bowl smelling of embryonic fluid, I would have to mash it up with some salt and pepper and eat the whole thing–beak, fur and adorable little ducky feet and all. This was the primary reason why I turned vegetarian at 17. Its been since 2007 that I started to eat meat again.
Please be careful when venturing into Asian-town, avoid labels over the eggs like "balut" and "hot vit lon." You are warned.
yendang at 12:13AM on 03/08/09
When I was little, I used to LOVE quail eggs. I thought they were so cute! Seriously though, get them from a chinese supermarket. They come in cartons of 18 (or 24?) If you just want to try them, its worth it. They dont taste particularly different. Although, they yolk is proportionally larger, so beware, you yolk-haters.
engmcmuffin at 9:00PM on 03/09/09
I just recently purcased an emu egg at the reading terminal market in Philadelphia for $8. It came from a farm in NJ. It yeilded 2 cups of liquid. I made one small omlet. I didn't add milk to the omlet and it was still light and fluffy and had a very creamy taste. the remainder of the egg I made into a quiesh.
palnuda at 2:41PM on 03/16/09