This is a pretty old question that came up in the active questions because someone updated their answer:
It was originally asked in 2010, so long ago, but it seems wrong for the format of this site.
There are clearly a ton of different ways to make a fried egg, and what one considers "perfect" is extremely subjective, as the answers and comments show.
This question could easily be closed as "Too Broad":
There are either too many possible answers, or good answers would be too long for this format. Please add details to narrow the answer set or to isolate an issue that can be answered in a few paragraphs.
Or as "Opinion-based":
Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise.
Even with "specific expertise", there's no one "right" answer here, it's a matter of personal taste.
Additionally, on our "What not to ask" page (which is identical on every SE site, if I remember correctly), one of the examples of "bad" questions is "every answer is valid".
- To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where …
- every answer is equally valid: “What’s your favorite ______?”
- your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers: “I use ______ for ______, what do you use?”
- there is no actual problem to be solved: “I’m curious if other people feel like I do.”
- you are asking an open-ended, hypothetical question: “What if ______ happened?”
- your question is just a rant in disguise: “______ sucks, am I right?”
If you really think about it, this question could be easily rephrased as "What is your favorite method for making the perfect fried egg?"
And, technically, this question exactly follows the style of the second example "your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers."
Now, I'm not trying to open a can of worms here... and maybe the community is OK with this question and others like it because, essentially:
Almost every cooking process has multiple "best practices", and what one person prefers may be different than another so we are OK with ignoring the "every answer is valid" rule because, without them, we'd have much less to talk about here.
But, if that's the case, how different is that then something like "What is the best cookie dough base?", which is essentially a recipe request question... but really still falls into the techniques category.