蛋 - Dan4 - Egg
皮蛋 - Pi2 Dan4 - Skin Egg — “Thousand Year Egg”
“Thousand Year Old Eggs” are really only about 100 days old.Duck eggs are used instead of chicken eggs.
The raw eggs are buried in the ground in a mixture of clay, lime, salt, tea and straw. I have seen recipes calling for pine ash instead of clay.
This mixture leaches into the shell and egg, making the interior smooth and creamy - like a ripe avocado in texture.
The yolk turns a vivid green and the white various shades of yellow, blue and green. It has been compared to the colors of a black opal.
Sounds delightful, doesn’t it? These are so disgusting to the uninitiated that they’ve even been used to make people puke on Fear Factor. The first time Jenny showed me I couldn’t believe it. But she loves them, and so do something like 2 billion other Chinese and assorted asians. They were even the theme ingredient on an episode of Iron Chef! For some reason, Food Network has elected not to translate that episode to English. I wonder why.
Now I’ve come to accept them, I’ve eaten enough to say “I’ve tried it and I don’t like it”. I’ve also eaten 蟲 which actually weren’t that bad… dry, salty, crunchy.
Boingo
I just tried a 100 year old egg today, and I must say it is interesting.
I was not very hopeful at first, because the smell from it is virtually identical to that of Lysol spray cleaner.
The taste of it wasn’t bad however. I actually enjoyed it, especially that greenish grey yolk. I can not describe the flavour much, except that it was mild and interesting.
The only thing I did not enjoy about eating the egg was the fact that I would occasionally get an unpleasent whif of that Lysol smell travelling up into my nose from the back of my throat.
Of course I was eating it straight, which I am told is wrong. The woman I bought the egg from said that it is best to eat them along with something else, and specifically recommended a rice soup.
I will have to try another one some time soon in concert with another dish, and see if this is true.
steve
Jenny recommends thousand year egg and tofu salad.
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