There is an egg-cellent food trend making the rounds on TikTok.
Thousands of creators are creating “egg flights” — halved hard-boiled eggs topped with different garnishes. Some tasty iterations include Caesar-dressed lettuce and croutons; smoked salmon, capers and cream cheese; or tomato, mozzarella and basil. The tray of samplings, often consisting of three whole eggs or more, is what makes them flights, like a flight of beer available at breweries.
Alice Choi, who runs the Hip Foodie Mom blog, is the woman at the helm of the trend. She first came up with the customizable dish in 2022 but has gone viral more recently. A June 29 video with over 117,000 likes shows Choi adding Kewpie mayonnaise and mustard to all six halves. She then dollops kimchi, pickled onions and jalapeño slices and drizzles honey.
Choi tells PEOPLE that she thinks people are “gravitating towards this because it's like a deviled egg, but it's so much less complicated” and because it makes for a good post-workout snack. She also has a theory as to why the snacky meal took years to hit virality.
“I think it went viral recently because of the whole girl dinner,” Choi says.
Girl dinner was one of many TikTok-approved meals in 2023. Women were (and still are) sharing their snack plates full of bread, cheese, olives, pickles, nuts and colorful fruits and vegetables. Girl dinner inventor, Olivia Maher (yes, Ilona Maher's sister), describes the charcuterie board-adjacent meals as what people make “when our boyfriends aren’t around and we don’t have to have what’s a ‘typical dinner,’" she told The New York Times, "essentially, with a protein and a veggie and a starch."
The similarities between "girl dinner” and “egg flights” are evident. Commenters on Choi’s videos have even written that it is “Elevated* GIRL DINNERRRR.”
Choi’s personal favorite egg combination is Kewpie mayonnaise, kimchi, gochujang and honey or Kewpie mayonnaise, gorgonzola and balsamic glaze — but she loves that TikTokers have taken the dish to new heights.
“Thousands and thousands and thousands of people have made them, so it's pretty cool. I think that's been the fun thing about this is just seeing different people's take on the egg flight,” Choi says. "I think somebody put on a little mini pancake and maple syrup on top of the egg. I mean, the possibilities are really endless.”
Choi has also shown viewers how to make burger-inspired egg flights and B.L.T. egg flights.
The secret is all about balance, according to Choi. “You need the creamy, the salt, the savory, the sweet, and you also need sour and texture. So I feel like once you have all of those things, it usually works out,” she says.
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For some people, the hangup for egg flights is removing the shells — but there are some tricks to peeling boiled eggs and it starts with purchasing your carton ahead of time.
The older the egg, the easier it is to peel. Generally, you should buy and refrigerate eggs 7 to 10 days before hard boiling. Eggs absorb air as they age, which helps separate the membranes from the shells.
You can test the freshness of an egg is by placing a raw one in a glass of water. If the egg lies flat, it is fresh and best used for poaching or scrambling. But if the wide end of the egg floats up slightly, or it balances on its pointy end, the egg is older — but still safe to eat — and perfect for hard-boiling. (If it floats to the top of your glass, it's too old and should be discarded.)
Boiling for 10-12 minutes will get you firm yolks, any less, around 6-8 minutes, means a softer yolk. After they're done, pop them in an ice bath for 2 minutes to stop them from cooking any longer.
Once it's time to peel, some people suggest holding the egg under running water. The water helps to separate the egg from the membrane and also washes off any of the pesky eggshell pieces.
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Others advocate for the spoon method. Crack the eggshell and peel off a small piece that still manages to fit a spoon inside, then glide the spoon between the membrane and the egg to take off big pieces.
Another approach, which gained traction from TikTok, involves shaking your hard-boiled eggs in a glass container. Add an inch of water to a Mason jar before adding your cooked eggs inside. The best part of this method is that you can put several eggs in a container at once. Place the lid on, shake the container and the shells should be almost entirely removed by the end.
