The Easter Egg-travaganza!

I’m on a hunt for an Easter egg!

This is no ordinary egg for it has to have a chocolate shell which when cracked open, should reveal more chocolate goodness nestling inside, the sweetness of which explodes on your tongue and leaves you warm, happy and loved .

Alright, am I being unrealistic or maybe a tad too particular ?

Well, blame it on Ms Enid Blyton who set my childhood imagination aflame with this strange ritual called the Easter egg hunt that had chocolate eggs as prize in her stories.

You see, growing up Christmas was huge in our school with carols, nativity play and Santa. The bakeries too did their bit by going all out to promote their Christmas cakes for this was a time when their wares were limited to Pineapple or Black Forest pastries, patties, cream rolls, biscuits and bread . When you asked for chocolate, the choice were between bars of Amul Dairy Milk, Nestle and Cadburys.

Easter on the other hand didn’t figure much in our calendar, always falling on a Sunday.

Many years later, an egg shaped confectionary landed in the Indian market that packed a surprise toy and a sweet inside. Needless to say, yours truly was more excited and overjoyed than the kinder who were opening it.

The toy was tiny, had to be assembled and it quickly lost its novelty . The sweet too didn’t give that sugar rush one was aiming for.

Nope! This wasn’t it.

So patiently biding my time, I watched my neighbourhood bakeries transform into gourmet ovens with fancy names. Today I see croissant, Danish pastries, baklava, red velvet sit in the same row as a pineapple and Black Forest.

Therefore with much hope I scanned the newspaper for the mention of Easter special and did a quick online search.

I can safely say, it’s raining eggs of all sorts except the kind I want.

From the priceless Faberge eggs to the incredible plastic egg scam taking our cities by storm (fake eggs are sold along side the normal ones and appear so real that they even have yolk and albumin), the search engine was on a roll. It happily threw up Easter eggs in films next.

Time to reach out to foodie families.

My brother was roped in for suggestions. I instead got a quick lesson on the Russian Orthodox who celebrate Easter a week later. The eggs are red which are marinated or dyed (I think) and remain unspoilt for days.

According to him, those were authentic Easter eggs!

As for taste, exactly like hard boiled eggs.

Hmm…Looking back, there was once when I did feel close to fulfilling my goal of savouring these elusive elliptical objects.

I had begun studying in my new school and the rumour was that we’d be served special eggs on Easter for breakfast. Our Principal was from the same country as Ms Blyton. She had to know the custom.

Yippee! It was finally going to happen.

That day breakfast was hard boiled eggs in shells which had specially painted multi coloured wavy lines on the otherwise bland white .

An update :

I visited a popular bakery in town known for its innovative approach and got my chocolate fix – an eclair, a chocolate donut, a death by chocolate and a chocolate truffle. Sadly there were no chocolate eggs of my childhood dreams.

I might as well have my paint box ready.

Sunday is almost here.

All Photos : pixabay