Deviled Eggs: Still So Hot Right Now

Eric Wolfinger

Deviled eggs at Jasper's Corner Tap and Kitchen.

After avoiding a fate that seemed to doom them to some sort of Eighties potluck hell, deviled eggs have been enjoying quite a comeback as a fashionable bar and lounge snack over the past couple of years in San Francisco.

And they're anything but plain. There seems to be some unwritten rule among local chefs that if they're going to put deviled eggs on the menu, they have to be a bit quirky and different. At least this is what our recent research (i.e shameless pig-outs) have demonstrated.

Chef Adam Carpenter at Jasper's Corner Tap and Kitchen serves a trio of deviled eggs with seasonal flavors. The current ones use the egg as a compact vehicle to deliver powerful vegetable flavors: There's a Caesar salad egg, topped with fine ribbons of Romaine; a garlic-led chipotle-romesco that packs a tiny kick; and an heirloom tomato caprese that tastes fresh out of the garden.

The deviled egg is also a smart replacement for a sandwich, no bread required. Nettie's Crab Shack nails this with its Dungeness crab deviled eggs, seasoned with housemade Old Bay and served at weekend brunch. And at the recently revamped E&O Asian Kitchen, chef Arnold Eric Wong uses the deviled egg for some cross-cultural experimentation. He offers a smart fusion of this American classic with a traditional Chinese treatment in his lapsang souchong tea smoked deviled eggs. They are intermingled with chewy rounds of Chinese bacon and disappear off a table far too quickly.

Unlike bacon or cupcakes, there doesn't seem to be a healthy backlash against the trendiness of the deviled egg, perhaps because there isn't any obnoxious commercialization going on around it. Looks like it's the quiet, protein-packed, Paleo-friendly treat that's here to stay.