Tag: eggs

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foooood in taiwan

a cooking class with ivy

one of the gifts the boy gave me last christmas was a cooking class in taiwan, and i loved the experience! beforehand, i picked a few dishes and discussed them with the teacher, and we agreed on the plan. we met at the market to grab some ingredients, including eggs, which were in shortage on the island for some reason. ours were salted eggs — the yolks are firm and delicious!

the market tour was definitely a highlight of the experience — they had so many types of rice, and things like spice mixes and dried leaves for all sorts of things, fruits i’d never seen, and the cuttlefish was so fresh it changed color if you touched it!

back in her studio, we had tea, and then started cooking! we made wontons in chili oil (which was not as spicy as expected) and sweet steamed red bean and sesame buns…

… and shanghai zongzi! zongzi is a laborious affair of rice, pork and salted yolk wrapped in a huge bamboo leaf that is then pressure cooked. ivy was super patient with me though, showing me the right wrapping technique while i made a mess in her kitchen.

it was amazing experience, with delicious results — and i even got to bring the leftovers home for the boy! :D

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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. :)