My next (not so) few posts are going to be about an ingredient that is used almost universally. The humble but amazingly versatile source of life itself – the egg.
When I arrived in China, I was surprised to find almost every market and supermarket carried a larger range of eggs than anything I’d seen anywhere else. Not only were there eggs from more types of bird, but I also had to be careful within the choice from any one bird.
Even small neighbourhood mom and pop stores carry more than one type of species and type. I’ll start with the smallest and work my way up.
鹌鹑蛋 (ān chún dàn), quail eggs.
Not only are these sold everywhere; they come in different formats. Fresh quail eggs are boiled and served in soups, noodle dishes and hotpots. I’ve had them as a garnish with fried rice and fried noodles, as well as other dishes.
However, also available most places are S: 咸鹌鹑蛋; T: 鹹鹌鹑蛋 (xián ān chún dàn), salt baked quail eggs. These are often prepared in-house by supermarkets but also sold individually wrapped as snack items. In the supermarkets, the eggs are buried in a mound of salt and baked.
The salt is cracked open and the eggs extracted to be sold by weight.
As you will see, the fresh eggs in the yellow bowl above look identical to these salted eggs. It took me a few attempts to buy the ones I really wanted! I had to learn to read the labels. This applies to eggs from almost all species.
The individually wrapped salted eggs are sold like this. A bit easier.
Another snack item is S: 卤香鹌鹑蛋; T: 鹵香鹌鹑蛋 (lǔ xiāng ān chún dàn), stewed, spiced quail eggs. They are usually stewed with 5-spice powder.
For those who find peeling boiled quail eggs difficult or boring, they are sold peeled by some supermarkets.
Several years ago, I had a student who was funding her studies by working part time in a large, local supermarket. Her main task was peeling the quail eggs. She taught me her secret method.
The eggs are placed in a bowl and covered with a 50:50 mix of rice vinegar and water and left for 15 minutes. Lo and behold, the shells dissolve and leave prisitine peeled specimens which are then washed and sold. I've tried it and it works without leaving a vinegar taste to the eggs.
Not a Chinese preparation, but I usually use quail eggs to make mini scotch eggs.
Quail scotch eggs with duck meat and panko casing.
