Meaning:
Don't offer advice to someone who has more experience than oneself.
Background:
These days this proverbial saying has little impact as few people have any
direct experience of sucking eggs - grandmothers included. It is quite an old
phrase and is included in John Stevens' translation of Quevedo's Comical
Works, 1707:
"You would have me teach my Grandame to suck Eggs."
There are few grannies left who really do suck eggs.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many Chinese grannies are still capable, I am sure. Sucking eggs was nothing
magic and required only attention and basic motor skills, both plenty back in
the days of material shortage.
I head to the weather-beaten wicker basket half-covered with a faded straw hat
on the window ledge and peek in with bated breath. Often at least one egg lies
at the bottom of the nest, a bed of wheat stalks. Sometimes the place is taken:
a hen has snugged down there and an egg's on its way. She does not budge but
shoots me an annoyed look as if saying "I'll let you know."
I hold an egg upright, not too tight, with the fat end on top, aim the tip of a
chopstick, and a few jabs are all it takes to break through the shell. Next,
it's easy just to unpend the oval globe and let gravity do its work helped by
some mouth muscles through the opening which can always be enlarged when needed.
The white tastes slightly salty and the yolk exquisite.
Muscle memory lasts a lifetime and old habits die hard. Chinese grandmas not
distracted by Pokemon, Fruit Ninja, or Angry Birds should do fine sucking eggs.
