Even though I've turned 30
I failed at peeling every single one of the hard-boiled eggs I made at the very end of my twenties.
I always make hard-boiled eggs by intuition. I make them somewhat randomly, and I enjoy the gambling aspect of the results. Whether they turn out hard-boiled, soft-boiled, or like onsen eggs, they are all delicious, and if they turn out well, I feel happy, as if I had a bit of good luck. I quite like it.
However, this time was a total disaster.
There is no doubt that I didn't cool them enough. I took a shortcut. I wanted to peel them quickly before the date changed and I turned 30.
I lost about 15% of the edible part of each of the 10 eggs. What a waste, I thought, as I threw the egg whites stuck to the shells into the garbage net.
It was too late to do anything about it. Maybe there was a way, but because I want to keep making hard-boiled eggs by intuition, I didn't want to look up any emergency fixes.
Come to think of it, ever since I was a kid, my mother told me, "Don't take shortcuts" and "Don't be lazy." Even as an adult, I haven't fixed it—or perhaps I have no intention of fixing it, or maybe I just use it selectively depending on the case. To be precise, I don't take shortcuts at work, but I take shortcuts all the time in my daily life. The result is these eggs.
I'm sure the chickens were given good feed, and the producers put a lot of effort into making them delicious eggs, yet I failed with 10 of them.
Even though it's a result I brought upon myself, I can't help but feel sorry for these tattered hard-boiled eggs.
I marinated them all, escaping from reality by telling myself that the flavor would soak in well.
Today, when I opened the container, they had turned a properly delicious brown color. They were far from having smooth egg skin, and they looked bad, though.
I tried one, and the yolk was perfect. The seasoning was just right, too.
I decided to start my thirties by encouraging myself with the excuse, "Well, the essence of the flavor is good, so maybe these hard-boiled eggs weren't a failure after all."
Confucius is said to have stated that at thirty, one stands firm, but it seems it will take me a while longer to reach that point.