Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 4 – Preserved eggs are commonly eaten in China, and have been for probably hundreds of years! They have many names; century eggs is probably one of the most common and supposedly “Songhua dan,” or pine-flower egg, is the proper name. The names are all somewhat misleading, as they are nowhere near a hundred years old and have nothing to do with pine, except that the designs of a peeled egg are said to resemble pine needles. They are usually made from duck eggs, but can also be made from quail or chicken eggs. For the ones we bought, the actual ingredients are duck eggs, water, salt and black tea. The carton also specifically states “no lead.” There are a couple methods of preparation today, but they are commonly soaked in a saline solution for a few weeks to a few months. Ours were wrapped individually in little plastic bags holding on the coating, which from research, seems to probably be clay, ash, salt and rice hulls. I know one thing, if you go by the smell alone, I don’t see why anyone would eat these! They have a VERY strong ammonia type smell! And I wasn’t crazy about the taste, but I ate it, the brownish, translucent “whites” were much better than the yolk!! The Chinese will often sprinkle soy sauce on the eggs or cut them up and add them to rice porridge. I guess the big selling point is that they don’t go bad????? We have 7 eggs left, so I guess we’ll try them in some recipes! What do others think of these? Feel free to comment! pr
Eggs Stirred with Stones
Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, July 22 – Yesterday, Leah and I had lunch with a Chinese friend at a Hunan cuisine restaurant. There are actually 8 main types of Chinese regional cuisines. Hunan is known to be spicy, and I don’t eat spicy food, so, in a search for some dishes that weren’t spicy, one dish we ordered was the “鸡蛋挑石头,” “Jidan tiao shitou” or “Eggs Stirred with Stones.” I thought by the picture that it was steamed eggs, which are common here, so I was surprised when our dish arrived. The waiter set a hot stoneware pan with big black stones down, then poured the uncooked egg mixture in and started stirring! Amazing how fast the eggs cooked! Basically scrambled eggs cooked in a hot pot with stones! Then as they sat while we ate, the bottom browned a little more and was really good. The eggs WERE spicy! Too much for me to eat alone, so I mixed them with the fried rice we had also ordered and enjoyed it that way. We also had a cauliflower dish. If you’d like to read the basics of China’s 8 cuisines, this page is simple and informative : http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-food/eight-cuisine.htm