Sunny-side up eggs sometime go by the name looking at you eggs, an apparent reference to how the yolk in the middle of the egg white makes them resemble eyes. A similar idea appears in the German name, which translates as “mirror egg,” and in Hebrew, where such eggs go by a name that translates as “eye egg.” The Japanese term, medama yaki, translates as “fried eyeball.” In Latvia, they’re “ox eyes,” and in Indonesia, “cow eyes.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Sunny-Side Up Eggs”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Adam. I’m calling from Menominee, Wisconsin.
Well, I’m originally from Menominee, Wisconsin, but now I live in Madison, Wisconsin.
Welcome to the show, Adam. Nice to talk to you.
Well, thank you so much for having me.
The reason I was so specific about where I’m from originally is because I think my question might be very specific. Very specific region there in Wisconsin, west central Wisconsin, not far from Minneapolis, St. Paul.
Growing up, my family would always order eggs at a restaurant, or if we were talking about having eggs at home, we preferred sunny-side-up, but we called them looking-at-ya eggs.
And now when I travel, or if I’m even in a restaurant in the Madison, Wisconsin area, and I order my eggs without thinking, I’ll say, oh, looking-at-ya. Everyone else at my table and the server usually gives me a very weird look.
And it takes people a moment before either they realize or I realize that we’re speaking the same language. And then I have to either clarify sunny side up or someone will say, oh, you mean sunny side up.
That’s outstanding.
Yeah, I think it’s an interesting way to order eggs. And I swear it’s a thing, but nobody I’ve ever met outside of Menominee, Wisconsin can confirm this for me.
And I Google for it. I can’t seem to find any information about it online. So I’m hoping that you folks can maybe help.
It’s really charming. I almost never see it. But Grant, you’ve done some digging.
Yeah, I’ve seen it as far back as the 1920s. You can find it searching various complicated ways on Google Books. You’ll find plenty of uses of it over the decades. It’s not common, but it is out there and apparently it’s a thing.
The earliest use that I can find actually has it in quote marks, which means that the author thought that it was worth setting off in quotes for special attention as being an unusual phrase.
Oh, great. What book is that? Can you say it?
Actually, I don’t have it in front of me. I have the quote. I can find the quote.
The quote is, the one thing that sets off a plate of nice Berkshire ham more than any other thing is a nice plate of giant white Plymouth Rock eggs looking at you.
Oh, I love it.
Thank you so much. That really vindicates me with my friends, and also I really enjoy the story.
And it’s literally breakfast, so it’s ham and eggs for breakfast, right?
Exactly, exactly.
You know, it’s interesting, too, all the Germanic heritage there in Wisconsin, because in German, the term for this translates as mirror eggs.
Oh, that’s interesting.
Mirror eggs.
Yeah, like they’re looking right back at you.
And you see the same thing in…
Oh.
Yeah, yeah.
In Hebrew, too, the name for it translates as eye egg. In fact, in Japanese, the term for it is madame yaki, which means cooked like eyeball.
Oh, this is great. This is so good. I am so glad I called you folks.
My question for you is when the server finally understands what you say, and then they bring the eggs back to you, but they bring your order, do they say, here’s eggs looking at you, kid?
No, they don’t do that, right?
They don’t, no. They missed the opportunity.
I will say some of the more witty servers will have a lot of fun with that, yeah.
Yeah.
I bet.
All right. Well, here’s to eggs looking at you. Thanks so much for the call, dude.
Thank you so much. Take care.
Thanks, Adam. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Mirror eggs is good.
Yeah, mirror eggs is good. It’s you looking into yourself in the mirror and seeing your own eyeballs back at you.
Yeah, that’s what I think. And that notion of those kinds of eggs looking like eyes appears again and again in languages around the world, like in Latvian. It translates as ox eyes.
Ox eyes. Big whites, right?
Yeah, yeah.
The name for it in Indonesian translates as cow eyes.
Cow eyes. Nice.
That’s cool. Humans are humans. We see things the same, right?
Yeah, I know. Kind of creepy to think if you haven’t had your coffee yet and these eyes are looking up at you and saying, why are you cooking me?
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