Duck eggs. That’s what I woke up thinking about. I was thinking specifically about a phone conversation I had yesterday with Nancy Nipples the Milkmaid—that’s her legal name, though not the one she was born with—the proprietress of Pike Place Market Creamery.

Joking about her name is well-mined comic territory in this town, so I’ll just pretend it doesn’t make me giggle to write "according to Nipples" and stick to the subject matter at hand: eggs.

Nipples carries all kinds of eggs, even ostrich eggs. Actually she only sells ostrich egg shells. They are just for decoration. In fact, Nipples told me there is a global culture of "eggers"—people who make art out of egg shells. They use dental tools to manipulate the medium. She says one of her friends even made a lamp for her out of an ostrich egg. (Which begs the question: What have your friends done for you lately?)

But duck eggs are for eating. The yolk is much larger than that of a chicken egg and has a lovely orange color. A duck egg is delicious when poached and placed atop a stack of grilled asparagus.

What else can you do with duck eggs? Nipples says that a lot of people who have allergies to chicken eggs buy them, finding that duck eggs don’t activate their symptoms. She also recommends them for baking. If a recipe calls for chicken eggs, Nipples uses the same number of duck eggs. She says customers who want less rich results will substitute half the chicken eggs in a recipe with duck eggs.

Other things you can buy at the creamery: tofu, 16 kinds of butter, raw milk, and cow memorabilia. It is currently located among the string of green trailers in front of the market’s Arcade building, but should be back in its permanent spot by June 1.