Cast iron. This should be short and tight, but because I'm writing it, we'll start around...1994. Maybe earlier. If you're going to live, you need a skillet, a frying pan. 12" is about right. In the early '90s, a friend I mostly hate right now and his long-term girlfriend he broke up with gave me a nice teflon/Silverstone skillet that has served me well. In recent years the lining has been coming off because a roommate in the early 2000s ignored the rule of using a plastic spatula. But I kept using it. Because fuck. I'm an old white guy. Something other than Teflon pan lining is probably going to kill me. Asbestos. Whatever. Anyway, it all became a moot point when the handle broke off. Yes, I could, conceivably weld/solder the handle back on, but in the mean time I just put it on the shopping list. And the supermarket had 12" skillets. They had a shitty cheap Kroger Teflon one and, for a moderate amount more, they had a cast iron Lodge Skillet.
Lodge cookware is made about 4 hours down the road in Tennessee. And hipster douchebag foodies probably swear by them. Back in the early '90s, after college, I moved to the Twin Cities and my amazing Aunt let me live with her, rent free, until I lined up a job and found an apartment. She had a...7" cast iron skillet. And I made a point of using it a lot. She also had an avocado green china cabinet that I often said I would refinish. So when she died, she left me the china cabinet (which I did refinish and looks quite nice in its natural red oak) and the skillet.
Now an old, random 7" cast iron skillet is nice. It's fine. It does some things a lot better than a teflon lined steel pan can do. But it doesn't wow you. Still, I splurged and shopped local and got the Lodge skillet and God-damn! It is nice. It is fucking magic. It hardly needs oil or cooking spray and once you get it to cooking temperature you can practically turn it off when you pour the eggs for your omelette into it because the mass of iron retains the heat so well. And it doesn't stick to the pan at all. Very slick (no pun intended). On top of it all, when you're done, after you've filled your belly and it has cooled down enough, you basically wipe it out with a paper towel and put it away for next time. You can add some water and spritz it with Pam to retain the seasoning, but you really don't need to. It is about the most basic and primitive cooking utensil and it is so much better than the most state of the art expensive one.
Again, I hate to sound like a foodie douchebag but damn, the hype is real. If you find yourself in need of a frying pan, treat yourself to a Lodge pan, You'll be fucking amazed. It's magic.