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1
And no, I'm not going to give a recipe for a boiled egg, but I do feel it's worth reminding you that if the egg is fridge-cold it should go into the pan along with the cold water when you put it on the stove, but if it's at room temperature - which is better - you should lower it into the water once it's started boiling.
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2
How long you want to cook it for is obviously up to you, but a beautiful, oozingly golden yolked egg had 4 minutes, as indeed mine does every morning.
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3
I also throw in a matchstick - rather than the teaspoon of vinegar or salt that some people swear by - but just because my great aunt always did and told me that it stopped the white cloudy substance flowing out should the egg crack while cooking.
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4
I think it does work, but I do it because I've always done it, not because I have scientific proof that it's effective.
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5
And that's the thing about breakfast: there is a strong ritualistic element; that, too, brings it in line with feasting in general.
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6
I have the same breakfast every day.
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7
Early mornings are bad enough without having the spectre of choice to haunt you too.
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8
First thing in the morning, I'd rather make breakfast than a decision and so I only ever swerve from this out of whim or, occasionally, dietary restraint.
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9
And like everyone with a weak need to be bound by habitual behaviour, I am irritatingly fussy.
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10
I want my egg to be Italian (free-range, organic and imported from Bologna, if you please: but seeing it, you understand why Italians refer to the yolks as 'I rossi' - 'the reds' of the egg).
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11
I want my salt to be Maldon and I want my sourdough bread to come from the Poilane bakery down the road.
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12
As ever, the butter has to be pale and unsalted and not fridge-cold, but not all sloppy-soft and oily either.
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13
I don't mind having a different breakfast, but I don't want a lesser version of the same one.
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14
Maybe it's my age.
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15
I know it is the convention to offer various savoury delights for the breakfast table but in all honesty I can't oblige.
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16
My feeling is simply this: apart from the iconic ideal of the boiled egg and soldiers, what could be better than fried eggs and bacon, poached eggs on toast, scrambled egg with sausages?
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17
Yes, as Lord Lambton memorably said when found with 2 hookers, 1 black, 1 white, we all want variety, but I don't see fiddling about with the basic components of a traditional breakfast to make strange and wonderful cheesey-bacony-eggy-bready concoctions ultimately that satisfying.
