DEAR MISS MANNERS: My husband eats eggs that are cooked over-easy as if it were a surgical procedure: With extreme precision, he cuts a square on top of the egg and pulls the flap back to expose the yolk. He then cuts his sausage and dips it into the yolk puddle. He claims this is perfectly acceptable and does not violate any element of good table manners.
For some reason, even as I describe this faux-fondue eating method, I find it a disgusting appetite suppressant. However, I can find no reference in my etiquette books that addresses this matter specifically.
Isn’t this a variation of playing with one’s food?
GENTLE READER: The etiquette rule that applies here is that any eating habit that disgusts one’s partner to the point of nausea should be ceased immediately. Miss Manners recommends that you encourage your husband to eat his over-easy eggs in private -- and serve only hard-boiled or scrambled ones when you are breakfasting together.