Category: eggeusia

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eggeusia foooood in taiwan

century eggs

i don’t know why we never bothered to try century eggs while we lived in china. truth be told, i feel like we missed out on exploring a lot of chinese food while we lived there… and now, 15 years later, i regret not having made a more comprehensive study of it. anyway, clay-preserved duck eggs were something we’d never tasted before — but they are awesome, despite the strange look!

the eggs are coated in alkaline clay for some time, to let it dry around the egg and let the chemistry do its magic. it gives them this funky color, with a smooth, gooey center.


in taiwan, they’re eaten alongside tofu, accompanied by some sauce. i could not get enough and ordered some every time they were available as a side dish. definitely made up for lost time!

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eggeusia foooood

vietnamese egg soda

this is one of those egg recipes that you just need to try for yourself, or you’ll never believe it works. it’s really simple though, so there’s no excuse not to give it a go: beat an egg, slowly pour some sparkling water on it, mix, add some condensed milk and stir again until it’s nice and foamy. pour it over a glass with some ice cubes and you’re done! the taste is eggy and sweet, and just the thing for a hot summer afternoon. :)

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eggeusia foooood

çılbır

i usually stay away from milk-stuff, but çılbır is one of those things that makes the lactase pills worth it. we discovered it first in berlin some years ago, but as soon as we knew its name, we started seeing these turkish eggs everywhere. i finally gave it a try myself when i stumbled on a recipe on all about eggs, and it was a-ma-zing!

it takes 10 minutes to assemble: mix crushed garlic with yoghurt, poach eggs, foam some butter with chili flakes. then put everything in a bowl and voilà! serve with bread if you like, or just eat it spoon by spoon, every single one of them a delicious mix of yoghurt and butter. :)

we like this garlicky yoghurt with spiced butter concoction so much that it has quickly become a staple around here. nigella has a video recipe on youtube — give it a try!

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eggeusia links and ideas

eggs and other collections

being a fan of eggs, i really enjoyed this brainscoop episode on the field museum‘s egg collection. lately i’ve been thinking about museums (it’s even the writing prompt of the month on Postcrossing’s blog) and specifically about the importance of natural collections to the understanding and preservation of the species’ biodiversity.

unlike typical collections of random or futile objects, natural collections are much more than a number to aim for — they are often a genetic repository of invaluable information. who knows what the technology of the future will be able to tell us about the past through the specimens we’ve preserved? or when we’ll need that information to start again? but in order to study, understand or start again, stuff needs to be collected and kept, sometimes for centuries.

we were surprised to discover recently that this is something our local town hall has been doing for the past few years… can you guess what they’ve been collecting?

i’ll tell you about it in the next post. :)

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eggeusia foooood in germany

and speaking of eggs…

…meet our awesome egg cooker! yes, i know what you’re thinking: a machine that only cooks eggs?! when i first started seeing these at big appliance stores, i looked at them with a sceptical raised eyebrow. why would anyone need a machine to boil eggs?

and yet, and yet… the perfect egg was always elusive for me, always tricky to get. too cooked, not cooked enough… the results tantalisingly close but always just slightly off the mark.

i might have mentioned this before – we go through a lot of eggs in a week. if i think about it, they’re probably my favourite everyday food. breakfast? eggs. middle-afternoon snack? eggs. too-hungry-to-go-to-bed-but-don’t-feel-like-cooking-a-meal? eggs. omelets, scrambled, fried, boiled, poached… with kimchi, mushrooms, salmon, caviar, bacon… they’re just so versatile and delicious! *sigh*

and so after a while, the idea of this magical machine and its promise of perfect boiled eggs starting chasing me in my dreams… until we finally caved in and bought it. it’s ridiculously easy: put eggs, put water according to desired consistency, cover and wait. when the water is all boiled, it beeps and voilá.

the results? perfect boiled (or poached) eggs – every single time. that, and a very happy ana! :)

ps – the plastic egg holders in the shape of chickens are another classic from the ddr. those guys sure loved their eggs!