The main reason I love promoting eggs is that I sincerely love the product, but another reason is that I love working with the egg farmers and everyone else who helps get eggs from the farm to our table. One group in particular is the American Egg Board’s state directors, whose job is to promote local eggs across the country. There are 34 state directors representing 39 states (some work regionally), 28 of whom came to New York for their annual meeting this year. As their hotel was right near my midtown Manhattan neighborhood, I took the opportunity to show off some of the local points of interest choosing two destinations that we could all walk to easily.

Lunch first. Two short blocks from the hotel is The Carnegie Deli, which has been a landmark New York delicatessen since the day it opened in 1937. Its super-sized sandwiches (the pastrami on rye has about a full pound of meat and stands a whopping 12 inches tall!) draw such a crowd that the line often stretches on for a full hour’s worth of wait time. Because it’s only a block from my apartment, I sometimes eat there as often as twice a week. Since I have had this routine for the past 30 or so years, I’ve gotten to know the owner, Sandy Levine, pretty well. He agreed to serve the whole group of us (32 to be exact!) more manageable half pastrami sandwiches and they still stood 8-inches tall! 

Accompanying the sandwiches were two kinds of the obligatory dill pickles: the regular dill and the half-sour or “new pickles,” which are cucumbers that marinate in dill and other spices for half the time as ordinary dill pickles, so they’re bright green and crunchier. The sandwiches were served with deli style mustard (of course) and mounds of creamy cole slaw, which some guests tried to put on their sandwiches. However, the result was so tall that it would all topple over. Naturally, the meal wouldn’t have been complete without the crowning touch: Carnegie’s famous cheesecake. Year after year, Carnegie’s cheesecake is voted best in New York, and, considering it’s the world’s cheesecake capitol, that should tell you all you need to know about it! Everyone in the group agreed that this cheesecake had to be authentic because it was so much better than the cheesecake they get where they live.

(It must’ve been a sugar high that got them behaving so goofy in the group picture here taken in front of the deli right after lunch.)

Next, we walked three blocks to the Hearst Tower for a tour of the Good Housekeeping Institute. I had arranged with my friend Susan Westmoreland, the food editor of Good Housekeeping magazine, to take us around, but at the last minute she had to go to a photo shoot for her Thanksgiving issue (yes, that’s how far ahead they work!). In her place, Susan’s colleague Jessica Fox showed us around. 

During the tour, we learned about the Good Housekeeping Seal that has been around since 1909. The seal is awarded to all manner of products evaluated by the Institute that are found to perform as promised. Good Housekeeping’s staff of scientists, engineers, chefs and nutritionists evaluate almost everything that’s popular with consumers.

To us, the most interesting part of the tour was the magazine’s test kitchens on the 29^th floor of the building, complete with windows overlooking the spectacular New York City skyline. Egg recipes developed in the test kitchens and published in Good Housekeeping magazine generated more than 93 million reader impressions this year alone! In this photo, you can see for yourself how orderly and organized the test kitchens are.

As we moved around the rest of the Institute’s laboratories, we saw where everything else is tested, from health and beauty products to clothing, luggage, mattresses, electronics (there’s even a “dead sound” room for that!), vacuums, and even appliances, both large and small. While we were there, one of the engineers showed us her lab. Yipes! Every inch of countertop space was covered with every manner of electric mixer. Check out the photo below. That’s what was being evaluated when we were there. She told us that egg whites were very much a part – and maybe even the best test – of how an electric mixer performs. She would not, however, divulge any test results. But that’s okay. I read the magazine every month and will learn soon enough. As you know, my job demands that I whip-up a lot of egg whites, so I can’t wait to find out what new product to buy!