This is a century egg.
It is quite literally the strangest food I have ever encountered in my life. Also called a “Hundred-Year Egg,” a “Preserved Egg,” a “Thousand-Year Egg,” and a “Horse Urine Egg” (oh yes), it’s an egg that has been preserved in a mixture of clay, lime, ash, salt, and rice hulls for several months (like this).
According to legend, the Century Egg was discovered during the Ming Dynasty by a man who returned to his home, which had been under construction for several months, only to discover a few duck eggs that had been buried in quicklime. He ate them for some unknown reason and boom: tradition, born.
I first read about century eggs years ago, shortly after I started Ramshackle Glam, and ever since have kind of kept my eye out for them – because as not-especially-palatable as they sound, they also sound crazy in the I-need-to-experience-this way – and last weekend?
FOUND THEM.
Here is what happened.
