I always buy free range eggs, for peace of mind that the the little chickens aren't laying the wee eggs with broken legs and total hellish living conditions. It's traumatising, for the chickens and I bet probably the eggs don't taste as good. I usually use a bit too much salt when making eggs, so the taste isn't my main reason for buying free range. Anyway, since being in Budapest, I haven't bothered buying free range. One, because I don't know the word in Hungarian, and also, the packaging on some eggs implies that the eggs are free range ie. terracotta or sand coloured boxes, with a sun rising over a farmhouse on the picture on the front. This makes the eggs in the box seem friendly as though they were procured through natural methods, but it might not say "free range" anywhere on the box. If the packaging reflected the true method of production, it would look like the terminator's lunchbox, or something. So how will I know for sure? That was the second reason.
So the eggs in the market, that are just stacked high behind the scales, maybe they're free range? But how do I ask my market man? I want eggs. If he says they are from battery hens then I'll probably still buy them. But enjoy them? The taste of chicken guilt. If the yolk is really really yellow, this is a happy colour for me, also the colour of butternut squash and honey soup. Very happy. But if the yolk is pale, a bit grey seeming, this is sad. I don't know what to do. I don't even know if they have free range eggs in Hungary. I mean obviously they do, but is the demand for them as widespread as in the UK? For example, the organic market here in Hungary is smaller than the organic market in the UK. It exists, but is smaller. But the traditional fruit and vegetable market is much more popular here in Hungary than in the UK.
I'm just going to have to have the awkward conversation with my market man about whether the eggs are free range or not. Will he think I'm some egg snob? Or over sensitive chicken lover? I will have to look up how to ask this in Hungarian. Easy enough, I'll just pop over to google translate. The words are:
szabad tartásból származó tojásokat
And that just means "free range eggs". There must be a simpler way. This situation is too stressful for what it's worth. I will just ignorantly buy the eggs from the market man, not the supermarket, and hope they are happy.
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