All it's cracked up to be

Eggs were never part of ancient Indian eating habits, but that doesn't explain why our chefs don't experiment with them more

- VIR SANGHVI

Industrial eggs have watery whites, pale yolks and very little flavour. Free-range eggs cost more but they are well worth it.

Each time I say that eggs are the world's most versatile food, I am bombarded with questions. Here are some of the most frequently asked ones, and their answers.

Is the egg a part of the ancient Indian tradition?

Sadly, no. Even the eminent food historian KT Achaya, who usually managed to find a South Indian origin for everything, conceded that there are hardly any references to egg dishes in ancient Indian literature. But he concedes that the egg entered Indian cuisine only after Islamic influences began to show up in our food.

Isn't this odd?

Yes, it is especially strange because research suggests that the wild jungle fowl was domesticated in the Indus Valley and then sent out to the Middle East. So, chicken is a very Indian contribution to global gastronomy.

Two possibilities suggest themselves. It could be that the people of the Indus Valley domesticated the chicken for its flesh, not its eggs.

A second possibility is that the people of the Indus Valley did eat eggs. But that as their cities collapsed, the egg-eating tradition died with them. The difficulty with this view is that it assumes that the Indus Valley civilisation predated Hinduism. This is a politically unfashionable view at the moment.