I’ve eaten them in Chicago. I’ve eaten them in New York and Boston and St. Louis. I’ve eaten them made with white truffle oil, smoked chilies, avocado, bacon and horseradish, tuna, and black olive tapenade, to name just a few variations.

Deviled eggs – or stuffed eggs, if you’d prefer – used to be primarily the province of picnics and potlucks, or other such homely occasions. But no longer.

I’ve been travelling a lot lately. I always told my children that when they were grown, they either had to live close to home or someplace interesting to visit. They apparently took my words to heart, because one lives in New York, one in Boston, and one in Chicago. In the last month, I’ve visited them all.

Consequently, I’ve eaten in a lot of restaurants. A common thread has been stuffed/deviled eggs on appetizer lists, from a gastro-pub with 40-plus beers on tap, to a Mediterranean restaurant with wonderfully unusual dishes, to a bistro known for its house-made charcuterie (sausages, patés, etc.). They haven’t been on all the restaurants’ menus, of course, but enough of them that it’s clear stuffed eggs have become a trend – yet another comfort food, like macaroni and cheese, that’s delighting even the most sophisticated diners. Even temples of haute cuisine are getting into the act, serving stuffed quail eggs topped with caviar.

Stuffed eggs aren’t just old, they’re ancient – there are records of them going back thousands of years to imperial Rome. The term deviled implies heat and/or spiciness, dating back to a time when the mustard and vinegar used in traditional recipes would have taken most folks to the outer limits of their piquancy tolerance. These days we’re used to eating much spicier and hotter food; calling them “deviled” seems almost inappropriate. Whatever they’re called, whether they’re “gussied up” or traditional, deviled eggs are always popular.

It’s easy to create your own variations of stuffed eggs. Ingredients can be added to your usual recipe, or not. The volume of additions shouldn’t be more than that of the mashed yolks. Mayonnaise is the traditional binder, but sour cream, yogurt, cream or milk can also be used. Ingredients added to the yolks should be minced; larger pieces can be used for gar-