To welcome spring and celebrate the fact that the government now says that eating an egg a day is A-OK, we asked the National Geographic staff to bring in their favorite egg dishes to share this week. They responded to our #NatGeoEggFest challenge with global inspiration.

In our kitchen, mini French quiche, Israeli shakshuka (eggs in spicy tomato sauce), Greek Easter bread (tsoureki) and a devil of an egg topped the offerings. But you can pretty much fry an egg and put it on top of anything. (If you’re a popular chain restaurant, you can probably make a few bucks doing that.)

But eggs go way beyond inexpensive vehicles of protein. They symbolize new life in many cultures, and have been pushed around on the White House