My brother, ever cognizant of my desire to try exciting new dishes, recently returned from Taiwan with something I hadn't seen before: iron eggs. Iron eggs are a Taiwanese delicacy from the Danshui area of Taipei. They are quail eggs (I think) which have been marinated in a sweet soy glaze and dried. Through the process, they turn jet-black and shrink to the size of small, black olives. They are a snack for tea, so we brewed up some of the best tea I had on hand, and gave them a whirl.The whites (or blacks, really) of these eggs were pretty rubbery, but the yolks had the texture of deviled egg yolks, and retained a lot of good sweet-soy flavor. These salty little numbers would make an excellent bar snack, much more fun than a bowl of peanuts.
I have already heard of them as regular eggs that are boiled until they shrink, but I don't know if a regular egg could really shrink quite that small, so maybe these ones are quail eggs. If they are quail eggs, they should be pretty high in cholesterol for something that small.
ReplyDeleteAre you a tea drinker? I had been wondering for a while if you're interested in coming to one of our informal tea group's sessions some time (we can drink whisky afterwards if you like).
It would be hard for me to fathom that they could be regular eggs that could shrink that small, but who knows.
ReplyDeleteAs to tea, I'm far from an expert, but I have had, and really enjoyed, some dan cong and puer teas and certainly would be interested in exapanding my horizons. Feel free to drop me a line: sku2sku@yahoo.com.