Thoughts of EggsTra Nice Easter : Past and Present

Leslie was absolutely over the moon when she received this sugary traditional easter egg as a gift from her friend! Having stayed in Sarawak since the late 60's Leslie gains a lot of pleasure receiving gifts via the traditional post although she enjoys Internet connectivity right at home! This easter egg is a fabulous handmade thoughtful gift. It was so well packed that not a grain of sugar is damaged.

Having been shown this Easter Egg I started thinking about Easter Eggs of Yesteryears and the present.


The first time I learned how to make scrambled eggs was with Pauline Wiltshire in Rumah Merah where we cooked perhaps more than a 100 eggs for the first English Sunrise Service I ever attended. I will never forget that service nor how many times the scrambled eggs came useful to me in my life. Saved my face so many times when I could not cook for visitors who dropped by suddenly. That's the first dish I would teach my children to cook when they were ready to learn cooking.


Red eggs are not the domain of the Chinese. The Greeks use onion skins to colour their eggs red to celebrate Easter. Indeed that's another fantastic recipe.

I continue to remember how the Cheng Brothers used to send eggs to us on their rounds from Queensway. The two brothers would come by with their bicycles and my mum would pay them immediately. When Easter came we would boil the eggs and donate them to Masland Church (where our Grand Aunt would be in charge). When the coating the eggs red we would get our fingers all red and we would laugh at each other. What fun we had!

Eggs are just so important to the Foochows! When the late Rev Lau Ngoh Kee made his outreach rounds in Sg. Maaw my late grandmother would always give him an extra egg in his chicken noodle soup(mee sua) as a token of appreciation. The late Rev Lau was a very popular Methodist Pastor who was a remarkable and enthusaistic man who provided a lot of pastoral care in his days. He must have walked a few thousand miles in his rounds of home visitation during the early days of the 50's and 60's. Sometimes I wonder where his descendants are.

The rest are images of western world easter eggs! Enjoy them! Happy Easter!





Easter to me would always remind me of physical and spiritual losses (via death or broken relationship)the deep grief - the emptiness of a tomb(which can only be truly felt by those who have lost their loved ones) - and finally the renewal of faith because of the revelation of the resurrection.