Last night I had a dream about eggs.
I don't know exactly why--perhaps its because I've eaten eggs for breakfast twice in the last 4 days, and I've only had eggs three times this year, so it's overload.
Anyway, in the dream, I was rummaging in the fridge, and I kept finding half full cartons of expired eggs. One behind the water filter, another tucked behind the condiments, and another nestled beneath the produce.
There is some truth to this egg waste--for some inexplicable reason, a 6 pack of white eggs costs 1.79 at Ralphs and a dozen costs 1.99. My bargain hunting, cost saving mind can't fathom 20 cents for 6 additional eggs. "And plus" I reason to myself "I can always hard-boil the extras when they get past expiration".
It's been a learning experience--so far I've yet to boil my eggs exactly right--just a little too soft in the middle.
"Why am I soft in the middle? The rest of my life is so hard! I need a photo opportunity! I want a shot at redemption! Don't wanna end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard!"
I do burst out in song, so I figured, why not do it on my blog?
In closing, I wanted to share something HORRIFYING with you. It's called a Century Egg.
"Century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, and thousand-year-old egg, is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulphur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with little flavour or taste. The transforming agent in the century egg is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of the egg from around 9 to 12 or more. This chemical process breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats, which produces a variety of smaller flavourful compounds."
I told you it was shocking.
6 comments:
I used to work with a woman from the Philippines who loved 100 year old eggs - her biggest problem is that they can be difficult to find in this country.
This reminds me of a conversation I was involved in once with a group of people. We had been talking about foods from other countries that we find disgusting and were wondering what foods we eat that other cultures find disgusting. A person who came from China said "cheese" - he couldn't think of anything more disgusting to eat than cheese.
I always end up with expired eggs too!
And, for some reason, milk. I have a hard time finishing the whole gallon.
that is beyond gross, but kind of pretty to look at.
Ezra,
I ate some of those "thousand year eggs" the first time I went to China. They have a texture that reminded me of cafeteria jello, kind of rubbery.
I don't think century eggs are disgusting. They are a bit weird in the beginning, but perfect with porridge and ginger. I wasn't too used to cheese in the beginning too. If you think century eggs are bad, try durians. They are also a local delight(Singapore, haha).
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