Whether you’re a good cook or not, it all boils down to one thing—how well you can cook an egg. I was always told that one can tell if someone is a good cook only if he knows how to cook an egg properly. And by properly, I mean neither overcooked nor undercooked. But the question is, why does it always have to be an egg? Why not onions? Or fish? Or chicken? Well, it’s simple. Egg is considered one of the most versatile and most delicate ingredients. You can play around with it, but you have to be perfect when doing it. So, just to give you an idea on how versatile an egg is, here are some things you can make out of it:

1. Sunny Side Up The simplest of all egg dishes. The two secrets to a nicely-cooked sunny side up egg is to have a very good non-stick pan and to cook it on low fire. You may or may not season your sunny side up egg, depending on your preference.
2. Over Easy It’s no special egg dish. It’s actually a variation of the sunny side up egg. The only difference is here, we flip the egg. Once the egg has been flipped over, a slightly opaque white skin forms over the yolk, which is a sign of a cooked protein. But the yolk should still be a bit runny.
3. Scrambled Egg It’s basically beaten egg combined with milk and seasonings. It should be cooked over low heat. The secret to a perfectly scrambled egg is you first let the egg set slightly, then stir.
4. Omelette There are two ways of making an omelette—the French style and the American style. What makes these two different is the way the omelette is folded. In a French omelette, we use the half moon fold, while in an American omelette, we use the trifold style.
5. Poached Egg Here, egg is poached in water with vinegar. The vinegar allows the egg white to form and envelope the egg yolk. The secret to a perfect poached egg? FRESH EGGS! The fresher the eggs are, the better the formation of the egg whites. From a simple poached egg, you can make derivations, such as Eggs Benedict, Eggs Florentine and Eggs St. Denise.
6. Fritata Italians like their eggs baked. Fritata, like scrambled eggs and omelettes, is a very flexible dish. You can use lots of different ingredients in this such as varieties of vegetables, meat, herbs and seasonings. You can also mix either milk or cream with the beaten egg.  This is commonly done in an oven using an ovenproof non-stick pan or a cast iron pan.

My most favorite egg dish is Sausage Fritata. It’s just a basic frittata, but what makes it special are the additional ingredients I add to it. Instead of using just one kind of sausage, I use three kinds: Hungarian, Italian and the classic Filipino longganisa. And since it’s for me to enjoy, I don’t mind overspending a bit by drizzling it with some truffle oil and sprinkling it with some sea salt. It’s definitely a guilty pleasure. Yum! How about you? How do you like your eggs?