Which came first, the chicken or the egg? If we’re talking menus, you might be inclined to say “egg,” if only for its ubiquity at breakfast. But the egg is the star of many other meals, too, and it is beloved for its workhorse qualities in recipes the world over. You could say the egg is ready for anything, and for its close-up. Or, as the saying goes, when in doubt, “put an egg on it.” To understand the power of the egg, you only need to look at the titles of two tomes devoted to the food: “Egg: A Culinary Exploration of the World’s Most Versatile Ingredient” by Michael Ruhlman and “All About Eggs: Everything We Know About the World’s Most Important Food,” edited by Rachel Khong. “The greatest of all our foods, the egg combines beauty, elegance, and simplicity, a miracle of natural design and, as food, bounty,” writes Ruhlman. “For as long as eggs have popped from bird butts, they’ve been relished the world round,” says Khong, “eaten, drunk, steamed, whisked, fried, baked, poached, cracked into dorm room bowls of Top Ramen, coddled in Michelin-starred restaurants. People eat eggs everywhere.” This unranked, purposefully meandering list takes us on a global tour of just some of those places, showcasing the myriad ways that eggs anchor dishes that are sweet, savory and every flavor profile in between Nutritious, delicious, and easy to make: eggs dishes have it all! This eggcellent guide to the different types of egg dishes covers everything from simple egg dishes, breakfast egg dishes, and everything in between. Scrambled Eggs This popular breakfast dish is made by beating egg yolks and whites together and then cooking them in a skillet or pan. Scrambled eggs can be creamy and soft or hard scrambled. Adding butter to the top of cooked scrambled eggs will give you buttered eggs. Sunny Side Up Eggs Sunny side up eggs are eggs slow cooked in a frying pan until the egg white is set, but the yolk remains slightly runny. The ‘sunny side’ refers to the intact yellow or orange yolk, which resembles a sun. Basted Eggs Basted eggs are similar to sunny side up eggs, but basted eggs are cooked on top by spooning warm butter or oil over the top of the yolk. Poached Eggs Poached eggs are eggs cooked outside the shell in simmering water. The egg white will wrap around the yolk as it cooks, and set around the soft yolk. Hard Boiled Eggs Hard boiled eggs are eggs cooked inside the shell in a pot of boiling water. For hard boiled eggs, the entire egg - yolk and white - are set. Soft Boiled EggsSoft boiled eggs are cooked within the shell by submerging the egg in boiling water. The time the egg spends in the water will affect the consistency of the soft boiled egg yolk and white. Over Easy Eggs Over easy eggs, or eggs over easy, as they’re sometimes called, are cooked in a pan until the white is set, and then flipped to cook the yolk side. Over easy eggs differ from basted eggs, because the top of the egg is cooked by flipping the egg, rather than, c