So, what's the deal with century eggs?

[Ivan Seeking]

What? No horse pee pee?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Century_egg_sliced_open.jpeg/260px-

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

...According to a persistent myth, century eggs are or once were prepared by soaking eggs in horse urine. However, this is not plausible since urine is usually acidic or very weakly alkaline, and would not actually preserve the eggs. The myth may arise from the ammonia smell created during some production processes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg

It is no wonder that this is a persistent myth. Back in college I had a friend from China whose father owned a restaurant, and even he said that this was how the eggs were made. It must be a favorite story used to freak-out the westerners.

It was always a treat when we had our Saturday study sessions. His father would send a box full of dim sum. Mmmmmmm!

He threatened to bring some thousand year eggs but never did.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

My stepfather (japanese) used to eat these. I tried it once and did not care for it at all. More or less tastes like a pickled egg. He also eats Natto, fermented soybeans, but I was never brave enough to try it.

 

[GCT]

Yeah , I had a Chinese friend and it seems that they are all about the food - not hygiene , not so much about the money or fame ... there are some that save up all their money for a mid-life festival with a gargantuan amount of food. Food seems to be very important to the Chinese ; despite the fact that the majority of their creations are considered to be inedible to Westerners , there are still a lot that are great e.g. Moo Shoo Pork , Lo Mein , Spicy Chicken.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

there are still a lot that are great e.g. Moo Shoo Pork , Lo Mein , Spicy Chicken.

I don't know about that. I don't think there are any Chinese restaurants in China. When I was there I asked people for directions to one, but no one knew of any. I kept my eye out for anything like Szechuan Garden or Imperial Dragon, but no luck. It would help if they had a Chinatown, but of course, they don't.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I don't know about that. I don't think there are any Chinese restaurants in China. When I was there I asked people for directions to one, but no one knew of any. I kept my eye out for anything like Szechuan Garden or Imperial Dragon, but no luck. It would help if they had a Chinatown, but of course, they don't.

Last time I was there they kept directing me to Nudo Stan but I never found him. I just went to McDonalds.

 

[GCT]

I don't know about that. I don't think there are any Chinese restaurants in China. When I was there I asked people for directions to one, but no one knew of any. I kept my eye out for anything like Szechuan Garden or Imperial Dragon, but no luck. It would help if they had a Chinatown, but of course, they don't.

Then I guess anything with beef - no organs - or noodle dishes is a substitute for those of us that plan to travel there ... and dumpling , however no insects and weird seafood.

So you guys just lived off Mcdonalds?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

So you guys just lived off Mcdonalds?

The food in China is wonderful. The only time I went to a western style restaurant was as a guest of some friends of my wife who wanted to make me feel at home. If I wanted to feel at home, I would have stayed there. But I know enough about 'face' to pretend that it was just what I wanted.

 

[tribdog]

so how was the "western style" food in china? better than the "Chinese style" food in the west?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

so how was the "western style" food in china? better than the "Chinese style" food in the west?

It was a Sizzler steakhouse. I have never been in one here so I can't compare. I don't remember the quality of the meal, but I think it was a disappointment. Western chains in Asia are looking to achieve one of two possible reactions:
a. When you walk in the door, you think are in America.
b. When you go to America, you say "What do you know, they have them in America too."
I forget which it was. Tokyo Disneyland is type a, and McDonald's in Japan is type b.

 

[Cyrus]

How is this different from pickled eggs?

 

[tribdog]

for one, that red color is a dye. the blackness of a hundred year egg is concentrated vileness.

 

[Moonbear]

The food in China is wonderful. The only time I went to a western style restaurant was as a guest of some friends of my wife who wanted to make me feel at home. If I wanted to feel at home, I would have stayed there. But I know enough about 'face' to pretend that it was just what I wanted.

My boyfriend regularly has clients from Japan visit, and takes them to Japanese restaurants..."so they'll feel at home." I keep asking him how he knows they don't want to taste American food while visiting the US. He claims they're always very pleased with the places he takes them. I haven't yet managed to explain to him that concept of "face" that is common across multiple Asian cultures, that they would never dare insult him by telling him they would have preferred something else. I try, I really try. He's Italian, so I ask how he feels about the food served in Italian restaurants, and he tells me how he could make so much better at home. Then I ask what types of restaurants he goes to in Japan, and he tells me sushi, or other traditional Japanese restaurants (of course for some reason they don't call them Japanese restaurants there ). I ask if he would prefer to go to American restaurants while in Japan...he tells me no, he can have that at home. And I ask, if his Japanese hosts took him to an American restaurant and it was a poor attempt at creating anything American style and he didn't like it, would he tell his hosts it was bad, and nothing like real food at home? Again, he tells me no. So, I ask again, why does he think his Japanese clients like going to Japanese restaurants when they visit? And he still answers, "Because they like it, it's more comfortable having familiar foods when traveling."

As for those Century eggs, I had never heard the myth about horse urine for making them, but I'm not sure it matters. Somehow, knowing it's not used still doesn't make them look any less like really horrendously rotten eggs to me.

 

[Cyrus]

My boyfriend regularly has clients from Japan visit, and takes them to Japanese restaurants..."so they'll feel at home." I keep asking him how he knows they don't want to taste American food while visiting the US. He claims they're always very pleased with the places he takes them. I haven't yet managed to explain to him that concept of "face" that is common across multiple Asian cultures, that they would never dare insult him by telling him they would have preferred something else. I try, I really try. He's Italian, so I ask how he feels about the food served in Italian restaurants, and he tells me how he could make so much better at home. Then I ask what types of restaurants he goes to in Japan, and he tells me sushi, or other traditional Japanese restaurants (of course for some reason they don't call them Japanese restaurants there ). I ask if he would prefer to go to American restaurants while in Japan...he tells me no, he can have that at home. And I ask, if his Japanese hosts took him to an American restaurant and it was a poor attempt at creating anything American style and he didn't like it, would he tell his hosts it was bad, and nothing like real food at home? Again, he tells me no. So, I ask again, why does he think his Japanese clients like going to Japanese restaurants when they visit? And he still answers, "Because they like it, it's more comfortable having familiar foods when traveling."

As for those Century eggs, I had never heard the myth about horse urine for making them, but I'm not sure it matters. Somehow, knowing it's not used still doesn't make them look any less like really horrendously rotten eggs to me.

He should take them to a strip club with lots of tall blonde american women. They loveee that kinda stuff.

 

[Moonbear]

He should take them to a strip club with lots of tall blonde american women. They loveee that kinda stuff.

We both want to know where you can find a strip club with lots of tall blonde American women. It seems most are Russian and stoned. ( Don't ask how I know.)

 

[tribdog]

We both want to know where you can find a strip club with lots of tall blonde American women. It seems most are Russian and stoned. ( Don't ask how I know.)

your g-string is full of rupples?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

why does he think his Japanese clients like going to Japanese restaurants when they visit?

Surely he realizes that compared to a Japanese Sushiya, the American (I should say Korean) places are bait shops.

 

[Moonbear]

Surely he realizes that compared to a Japanese Sushiya, the American (I should say Korean) places are bait shops.

He's a very smart guy, but once in a while, a neuron doesn't seem to connect on something like this. He has had sushi in Japan and knows the difference. There are some fantastic sushi restaurants near his office, but they're fantastic for Americans (or Japanese people living in the US, not visiting from Japan). The fish at those is very fresh and very tasty, but nothing like what you'd get in Japan. After he traveled there, he told me about the shrimp that was so fresh, the tail was still fanning open and closed on the plate!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

After he traveled there, he told me about the shrimp that was so fresh, the tail was still fanning open and closed on the plate!

I won't eat food that moves. There was a restaurant near where I lived in Japan that kept an octopus in a fish tank alive. The owner would slice off pieces of it at a price. No thanks.

The tragedy here is Morimoto's in Phila. He is the Iron Chef from Japan and has a chain of Japanese restaurants in the US. He had spent a lot of time in the US even before his Iron Chef days so his restaurant is a fusion of American and Japanese styles. I ate there twice. The price for sushi is very high, but the first time I went, it was worth it. Unfortunately, the second time I went, the rice was mushy and it totally ruined the meal, even for a barbarian like me. I will never go there again because I can't afford to sink that much money into a meal that might be good or might be nearly inedible. If you do go, see if you can avoid the ramen. His ramen isn't worth a nickel, all A and no J.

There's a restaurant called Santoku in Edgewater North Jersey. Yeah I know, enemy territory, but I'll sneak over the border for good ramen from time to time, I just wear a disguise so no one will recognize me. They serve the best ramen I've had in the States, but still not near as good as what you can get at any 'stand and eat' in Japan. The instant packaged noodles of the same name are not actually food. I'm sure the Japanese just laugh and laugh when they find out that we eat those things.

 

[GCT]

There are Japanese restaurants that cut up the fish without damaging the internal organs then place the fish on a plate so that it is eaten - as sushi meat - while it's alive ; there was a video a while ago where a bunch of tourists in Japan were at a restaurant and had a fish that did a little " talking bass " type of deal ... which you were supposed to thank by eating it of course. It would turn its head and gaze at the tourists and in turn all of them would scream in horror.

For one , it takes a lot of skill to have the fish in this semi-alive state. Presumably you kill the fish by eating it , picking off the slices on its side. The Japanese have a spiritualistic hedonism type of philosophy on life ... it's actually part of their supremacist ideal , eat drink and be merry for tommorrow we die while fighting for the future glory of the nation. When a Japanese chef serves you one of those live thingees it's supposed to be out of pure consideration for your wellbeing

... of course we are filled with horror and disgust for what's happening to the fish.

 

[rootX]

There are Japanese restaurants that cut up the fish without damaging the internal organs then place the fish on a plate so that it is eaten - as sushi meat - while it's alive ; there was a video a while ago where a bunch of tourists in Japan were at a restaurant and had a fish that did a little " talking bass " type of deal ... which you were supposed to thank by eating it of course. It would turn its head and gaze at the tourists and in turn all of them would scream in horror.

For one , it takes a lot of skill to have the fish in this semi-alive state. Presumably you kill the fish by eating it , picking off the slices on its side. The Japanese have a spiritualistic hedonism type of philosophy on life ... it's actually part of their supremacist ideal , eat drink and be merry for tommorrow we die while fighting for the future glory of the nation. When a Japanese chef serves you one of those live thingees it's supposed to be out of pure consideration for your wellbeing

... of course we are filled with horror and disgust for what's happening to the fish.

It is bad/wrong/evil maybe not disgusting ...

... regardless of who you are.

 

[tribdog]

I'll kill a fish and I'll eat a fish but I won't do it simultaneously. Wow, spelled simultaneously right without using spell check. that might be a first.