Fried egg

Fried egg

Georg Flegel: Imbiss mit Spiegeleiern (Snack with Fried Eggs), ca. 1600
Course	breakfast
Main ingredients	Eggs

A fried egg is a cooked dish commonly made using a fresh hen's egg, fried whole with minimal accompaniment. Fried eggs are traditionally eaten for breakfast in English-speaking countries but may also be served at other times of the day.

Fried eggs (Spiegeleier) are a crucial part of such traditional German dishes as Strammer Max (the egg is fried on one side with an unbroken yolk, and served "sunny side up" atop an open ham sandwich) or Hamburger Schnitzel / Holsteiner Schnitzel / Fernfahrerschnitzel ("trucker's schnitzel") – a similarly prepared fried egg served on a Wiener Schnitzel.

Fried eggs over (or side-by-side with) pan-fried potatoes is another common dish, sometimes served with spinach as a third component of the meal. Some German cooks break the yolk and distribute it across the surface of the white during the frying.

All of the above are typically lunch, rather than breakfast, dishes, although fried eggs themselves (like boiled or scrambled eggs) are a common part of a German breakfast.

Fried egg prepared sunny side up is known as "volské oko" or "buličí oko" (ox's eye) in Czech cuisine and they are served either alone as part of breakfast, or for lunch with side of spinach and boiled potatoes.

Americans use many different terms to describe fried eggs, including:

In Egypt, fried eggs are a common breakfast food. They are prepared plain, with vegetable oil or native butter or ghee only, or have one or more additions. These typically include tomatoes, various types of cheeses, beef sausage (both the thin fresh type, and the larger dried sucuk type), bastirma, or specially prepared minced meat with onions and spices; they may also be served with ful medames (slow-cooked fava beans). Less frequently encountered are "star eggs", a dish somewhat similar to a Scotch egg prepared by deep frying a breaded boiled egg in vegetable oil.