Off Eggs Forever
Friday, September 5th, 2003 15:41![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeI am currently reading "Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader" by Anne Fadiman. In an essay entitled The Literary Glutton, she mentioned how reading about eating can sometimes put you off food, and that reminded me of what happened when I read "Lazarillo De Tormes".
When I was in the upper sixth at school I was a prefect, and the prefects' common room was an old green wooden hut, stuck onto the end of the school building. At one end of the hut was a book storeroom, and the prefects used to use it as a private library, as there were novels scattered amongst the textbooks. So one day I happened to borrow "Lazarillo De Tormes", a Spanish picaresque novel, left over from the days when the school actually taught Spanish.
At one point, Lazarillo is travelling through the countryside and stops at an inn for a meal. He eats an omelette then goes on his way. After a mile or two he starts to feel unwell and vomits up his meal. In the vomit he sees bits of bones and feathers, and realises that the omelette was made from fertilised eggs.
Up until reading LdT, I liked eggs. I would often eat egg mayonnaise sandwiches, and eggs florentine (poached egg, spinach, cheese sauce) was one of my favourite meals. But after reading it I went totally off eggs. It took several years before I could eat an omelette or scrambled eggs, and I don't think I've ever eaten an egg mayonnaise sandwich since. I just felt nauseous at the sight of an egg, and even now I have to be in totally the right mood to face eating eggs and they have to look perfect or I'll leave them.
PS: I was trying unsuccessfully to find an English translation of LdT online so that I could quote the offending passage, when I came across this site, which has a library of Spanish literature for free download.
When I was in the upper sixth at school I was a prefect, and the prefects' common room was an old green wooden hut, stuck onto the end of the school building. At one end of the hut was a book storeroom, and the prefects used to use it as a private library, as there were novels scattered amongst the textbooks. So one day I happened to borrow "Lazarillo De Tormes", a Spanish picaresque novel, left over from the days when the school actually taught Spanish.
At one point, Lazarillo is travelling through the countryside and stops at an inn for a meal. He eats an omelette then goes on his way. After a mile or two he starts to feel unwell and vomits up his meal. In the vomit he sees bits of bones and feathers, and realises that the omelette was made from fertilised eggs.
Up until reading LdT, I liked eggs. I would often eat egg mayonnaise sandwiches, and eggs florentine (poached egg, spinach, cheese sauce) was one of my favourite meals. But after reading it I went totally off eggs. It took several years before I could eat an omelette or scrambled eggs, and I don't think I've ever eaten an egg mayonnaise sandwich since. I just felt nauseous at the sight of an egg, and even now I have to be in totally the right mood to face eating eggs and they have to look perfect or I'll leave them.
PS: I was trying unsuccessfully to find an English translation of LdT online so that I could quote the offending passage, when I came across this site, which has a library of Spanish literature for free download.
