4 February 2006
Egg Salad Schema
The other day I went to a deli for lunch, and I ordered an egg salad sandwich. When I took the 1st bite, I realised that something didn’t seem quite right. As I ate my sandwich, I wondered why I felt dissatisfied with it. My tastebuds told me that the egg salad was made with mustard and green olives. Whenever I make egg salad, I always use just eggs, mayonnaise, and a bit of relish. My friend, Gisela, makes egg salad similar to mine, but she sometimes adds small pieces of cucumber, apple or grapes for a bit of a crunch, which is fine by me because adding any of those items doesn’t change the flavour very much.
Being unhappy with my sandwich made me realise that perhaps when you’re so satisfied with the way you prepare something, you don’t want it any other way. I certainly am not against creative or experimental forms of cooking, but it’s almost as though I have a mental schema for egg salad. Just like how you always expect Coke to taste the same [remember how badly New Coke flopped?], I have an expectation for how egg salad should taste, even though I know that there are loads of different recipes out there. And I bet if you really think about it, you’ll come up with some foods about which you feel the same.