Je me suis fait cuire des oeufs et ...

Question

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

Hi Engenious,
Indeed 'Je me suis fait cuire des oeufs' is 'I cooked myself some eggs'.
Without the context it is difficult to comment further but in French-  
Cuire (to cook) is something that only food stuff can do. 
Faire cuire  is what the person does. (to cook something)
and Se faire cuire is to cook /make yourself something (to eat).
Hope this helps!

engenious engenious · Answer

In "L'etranger" I assume the writer means "I cooked myself some eggs" rather than "I had some eggs cooked" ??

Chris Wirt · Answer

The reflexive form of "faire" is used to make the action more indirect, to put some distance between the subject and the verb. At least that's my understanding. So most of the time this is translated as "having something done" rather than doing it oneself. In other cases the distance is more subtle. 
"Je me suis fait cuisiner des œufs" emphasises the fact that it is actually the stove who is cooking the eggs, if you want to look at it this way. Insome versions of US slang there is something similar:
I ate a burger. 
I had myself a burger. 
Mind you, that's the understanding I developped. A native speaker would need to have the final say on this.
-- Chris (not a native speaker).