Today on Monday Mysteries we take a look at an item for sale in a vending machine at the Munich train station: a Spiegeleie -Form.
Now first, we need to review that in German, a Spiegel is a mirror, but a Spiegelei is a fried egg. You might recall that a friend and I had some fun with that idea a while back, when she made some Spiegeleier and I took a photo of them reflected in a mirror:
Spiegeleier und Bratkartoffeln
I bring this up because last week Chris and I had an hour-long layover in the Munich train station. We wandered all over to kill time, and in one hallway ran across a huge vending machine filled with an amazing variety of odd little household gadgets. Now I’ve seen similar kinds of gadget-y vending machines in an airport somewhere — maybe it was even in Munich. But the airport ones all had things that I can understand why they might appeal as an impulse purchase to a person on a trip: e.g., an inflatable neck pillow, extra batteries for your MP3 player or perhaps replacement headphones to use with that player if you mistakenly left them on the last flight.
But there in Munich, the machine had an eclectic assortment of bizarre kitchen gadgets. The one that really caught my eye was the Spiegelei-Form, a plastic shape that allows you to make a face out of your Spiegeleier:
Spiegelei-Form, in a vending machine in the Munich Train Station
Really? A kitchen gadget for making your eggs into a face gets purchased by weary travelers on a layover in a train station? Hmm. Well, they say that they do like their eggs for breakfast here. And I guess it has a sort of quirky appeal, perhaps.
But still. I find it a mystery who would have thought this would be the perfect little gift item to sell in a vending machine. I wish I knew even where to begin to look for the answer to that one, but all I can do today is offer up the mystery for your consideration.
BTW, I didn’t buy one. I don’t eat fried eggs very often, for one thing. And besides, since I can see faces in everything all the time, I usually wouldn’t need a special Spiegelei-Form to see a face on my eggs.
Although I do have to admit that in my reflection photo above, I (for once) don’t actually see a face in the pan with the eggs. Which I guess might leave me with egg on my face in this instance after all. 😉