Ban on Sunny-Side Up?

I love my eggs, as anyone could guess with my previous post on them. But my favorite way to eat them is with a runny yolk. I've even been trying to find the perfect time needed to hard boil their whites while leaving their yolks still runny in the center. So far, success has not been achieved.

On the way home from work in the mornings, there are two restaurants that serve breakfasts at 7am and I decided that since it was Saturday and due to hunger, I would stop in for some eggs and bacon. First place I went to was full of vehicles all around the parking lot as well as boats. I live near a lake and we have fishing tournaments every weekend, or so it seems. Walked in, got a glass of water, asked how they cooked their eggs (with butter or vegetable oil, I of course chose the butter) and orders 3 eggs, sunny-side up and a side of bacon.

Imagine my surprise when the waitress told me that due to new food-saftey regulations, she couldn't serve me eggs that were sunny-side up.

"Can I sign a waiver or something? Salmonella might hit 1 out of 20 thousand eggs.. I can live with those odds. I just want runny yolks."

"Sorry sir. We can poach them if you would like.." She said, clearly expecting me to take that choice.

"Poached with runny yolks? How is that any better by the food-saftey regulations or whatever it was you said."

She replied, hesitantly, "...No, they wont be allowed to stay runny.."

"Then why did you offer me that instead? I want to spend my money here, I'll sign you something to absolve you from any problems I might have due to eating an egg sunny-side up, but if that won't fly, I guess then i owe you for the few sips of water I had."

There was no talking to her about this, which I can understand from the business standpoint if I was unwilling to sign a waiver... but that was not the case. Hell, hot wing places with extremely hot sauces have their customers sign a waiver.

I left and, while I was a bit put out and angry, stopped at the other restaurant which was smaller and had only three vehicles in the parking lot, two of which were police cruisers. Went in, ordered the same exact thing.

"Two eggs, cooked in butter please. Sunny-side up. And a side of bacon." I waited for the shoe to drop...

"Sorry hun, but due to the new food-saftey regulations.." I knew it, I just knew I was going to get the run-around here as well, ".. I have to warn you that eating eggs sunny-side up could be dangerous, you could get sick from salmonella. You still want them?" She ended that with a questioning look, to see what I was going to do.

"Hell yeah I still want them! I'll take three eggs in that case. All sunny-side up."

She nodded like she was glad of my choice and went back to the kitchen. I noticed that the officers were concuming eggs that were runny as well and one of them grinned at me, nodding his head at me. Now I knew why the cops ate here.

So I am wondering, where will it end? I used to think that banning unhealthy foods were a good idea... until my favorite food was banned due to safety concerns that are present from the producer, not the cooking or actualy health reasons. If there is such a concern over salmonella, which eggs get from the chickens who lay them, who get it from the cramped and inhuman conditions they are living in, why are not the companies that sell the eggs being punished? Instead, the customers who want to buy their products are being told they can not eat eggs a certain way because the egg companies don't know their head from a hole in the ground. And restaurants are being screwed over as well, since surely I can not be the only one out there who will not pay for eggs fried any other way than sunny-side up.

What is next? A ban on beef that is not cooked to well-done due to E-Coli problems that originate in the slaughterhouses and CAFO's? I can see banning something that is unhealthy like trans fats though a tax on items containing them would actually be better. Otherwise you get cities like San Francisco banning meat to be sold in restaurants on Mondays due to, not health reasons, but due to problems with how the companies treat the animals.

Doesn't this all point to a severe problem with the way our food companies operate and how little they are being policed? I re-watched Food, Inc. yesterday when the DVD came in the mail, yup I purchased it after watching it for free from PBS it was that good, and my anger at how little our government cares about the people just makes me ill. Sure, there are health care insurance reforms now, but if the food that we eat is of such lowquality and substandard, as well as the companies producing this low-quality and substanderd food are not being penalized for what they are doing, that they are making laws banning the way we eat certain foods... how can we stay healthy this way?

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