You’re right. I apologize for misreading and for my comment.
The cook shouldn’t be allowed to wield a spatula if he doesn’t know what ‘over easy’ means.
My understanding is “cook” defines an occupation, “chef” defines a position of employment. Thus all restaurants have cooks, some (fancy) restaurants label (some of) their cooks as chefs.
He says this is a Mexican lunch stand, so maybe the problem is linguistic and cultural? Anyone know how Mexicans typically order eggs and their technical terminology for over easy, over hard, sunnyside up, etc. Maybe there are only two ways to get eggs in Mexico?
Obviously, when you order a “fried egg,” you should be asked how you want it. But if I had to describe a generic fried egg, I’d say “sunny side up.”
I’m confused-- How do you cook the yolks to well-done if it’s sunny side up? I’d think that the white would be not just overcooked but actually burnt by that point.
The few times I make fried eggs, that is the way I cook them. Perhaps I cook them at a lower temperature than usual.
Mayo? Cheese? Tomato? In the classic lunchcart presentation of 100 years ago it was literally a “fried” egg on white bread with maybe some butter if you were lucky. All for a a nickle. The way God meant for it to be. That’s the tradition… none of these extravagant garnishes. It was customary to put three in a sack and hang them next to the onion on your belt.
Yep- I’ve been served the two pieces of bread with only an egg before. That’s why I said “AT MOST.”
I usually scramble them with a fork, foregoing the whisk, etc.
[hijack]After reading about it in a book about an escaped POW in rural France, I’ve taken to pouring a generous dollop of heavy cream over the frying eggs. Excess, I know, but the result is pretty tasty.
You can baste the top with the hot cooking grease which will help the yolk firm up faster.
I don’t know which of these to reply to first…Huerta88, you get a NASTY scum from the bacon grease on the egg.
I whisk the egg vigorously, ala Julia Child, with Cavender’s. Coat the pan with butter. Over low heat gently cook the egg. Add a little cheese, feta, perhaps, or that garlic herb goat cheese. Fold it over carefully and finish cooking. Take it out to my lady, with bacon and bread fried in bacon grease with some cherry jam (G-d, I must love her!) on the side, where she is sitting in a lawn chair watching the humming birds and chipmunks, drinking coffee.
Share it with her on the same plate, and think, I must be doing something right. 
Another possibility… it is really hard to turn an egg on a plancha or flattop without breaking the yolk, which is why some places cook eggs in a pan, so sometimes I have seen flat top only kitchens- kitchens limited by intrinsic engineering- that will baste the eggs (usually with some butter and water under a pot top) if they get an “over easy” order as alternate technique.
I beat with a fork for scrambled, whisk for an omelet. For over easy eggs, I use a non-stick pan (actually, for all eggs) with generous butter, and flip the eggs with a quick wrist motion: sort of slide them to the far edge of the pan and…alley OOP!
That’s pretty close. The word chef basically means boss. A cook makes food, a chef commands the operations of a kitchen.
Also, fried egg to me just means an egg that was fried; there’s infinite variety in that.
It’s like ordering coffee at a diner. The order is incomplete. The waitress should then ask “cream and sugar?” Or ordering steak like someone else said.
“I’ll have the fried eggs.”
“How’d you like those eggs?”
OR
“I’ll have two eggs - runny/over-easy/etc.”
“I like a man who knows what he wants.”
/plows waitress on the dessert cart
I’ve lived in Texas, California, and Indiana. In all three states, when I say I’d like fried eggs, the waitress asks how I’d like them fried.
“Fried eggs” has always been a generic term everywhere I’ve ever ordered eggs, inviting further specification.
I’m genuinely surprised to see that this is not the case for many people.
Where are you all from?
Douglas Adams has the answer.
I’m in Arkansas.
Where are you from, asking “You all” instead pf “Y’all”? :dubious:
Such a big thread… I love to get Dopers arguing!
yw
Hmm… my thoughts after reading this thread.
This sounds like a strong possibility.
Ewwww… Lettuce and tomato please.
You should have seen how pissed the cook was, too.
It’s not a stand, but a sit down diner with about a dozen tables. I think the cook might have spoken better English than the waitress, but she’ the head waitress and he’s one of only two cooks in the place. It calls itself a Spanish/American restaurant, and it’s in a primarily English-speaking, Polish inhabited neighborhood.
NY, but I’ve lived up and down the East Coast.
You just cook them until they’re hard. Nothing mysterious about it. You can also cover the pan with a lid and steam them to chalky grossness, too, if you’re in a hurry.