孩子在看着妈妈做饭。
她问了一个厨房里没人问过的问题。
孩子：阿姨，为什么妈妈把那个黄的扔进水槽里？
阿姨：因为有人告诉她黄的是坏东西。来，坐下。我给你看点东西。你知道鸡蛋是个房子，对吧？
孩子：谁的房子？
阿姨：给小鸡的。那只小鸡需要的一切来建造自己——骨头、眼睛、大脑、羽毛——全都在那个房子里。没人从外面带东西进来。没有市场。没有送货。全都在里面了。
孩子：一切？
阿姨：一切。现在想想。哪部分建造小鸡？蛋白还是蛋黄？
孩子：……蛋黄？
阿姨：蛋黄。蛋黄里有脂肪，有大脑的食物，几乎所有维生素都藏在那里。蛋白是在帮忙，是的——但蛋黄是在建造。
孩子：所以妈妈扔掉了建造者？
阿姨：她扔掉了建造者，留下了助手。她这么做不是因为她傻。她这么做是因为四十年来，电视上很严肃的人告诉她蛋黄会堵塞她的心脏。
孩子：这是真的吗？
阿姨：对大多数人来说——不，不是他们说的那样。你的身体自己制造，它会调整。从那时起，争论已经走了很长的路，而鸡蛋一直在悄悄赢得它。与此同时，他们让她代替吃的黄色涂抹酱是从工厂出来的，没人为那个大喊大叫。
孩子：所以他们吃盒子，扔掉礼物。
阿姨：……
阿姨：再说一遍给后排的人听。
这就是为什么他们叫我蛋博士。本来是开玩笑的。我一次也没介意过。
一个鸡蛋。比市场上假装是食物的其他所有东西都便宜。没有广告。没有协会付钱给任何人。它从不需要对你撒谎。
它就坐在那里，不花钱，做一切事。
别再扔掉蛋黄了。
The child was watching her mother cook.
She asked the question nobody in the kitchen had ever asked.
Child: Aunty, why did mummy throw the yellow one inside the sink?
Aunty: Because somebody told her the yellow one is bad. Come, sit down. Let me show you something. You know an egg is a house, abi?
Child: A house for who?
Aunty: For a small chick. Everything that chick needs to build itself — the bones, the eyes, the brain, the feathers — all of it is inside that one house. Nobody brings anything from outside. No market. No delivery. It is all in there already.
Child: Everything?
Aunty: Everything. Now think. Which part builds the chick? The white or the yellow?
Child: …The yellow?
Aunty: The yellow. The yellow is where the fat is, where the brain food is, where almost all the vitamins are hiding. The white is helping, yes — but the yellow is doing the building.
Child: So mummy threw away the builder?
Aunty: She threw away the builder and kept the assistant. And she did not do it because she is foolish. She did it because for forty years, very serious people on television told her the yellow one would block her heart.
Child: Was it true?
Aunty: For most people — no, not the way they said it. Your body makes its own, and it adjusts. The argument has moved a long way since then, and the egg has been quietly winning it. Meanwhile the yellow spread they told her to eat instead came out of a factory, and nobody was shouting about that one.
Child: So they eat the box and throw away the gift.
Aunty: …
Aunty: Say that again for the people at the back.
That is why they call me Doctor Egg. It was meant as a joke. I have never once minded.
One egg. Cheaper than everything else in that market pretending to be food. No advert. No association paying anybody. It has never had to lie to you.
It just sits there, costing nothing, doing everything.
Stop throwing away the yellow one.
