Tuesday 8 May 2012

SIMPLY EGGS

I cannot believe how small eggs are here in China. This one was however the smallest I've come across so far. There doesn't seen to be any standardising of the sizes. So just pot luck really. Will be a challenge when baking. To produce an omelette for two people I am using 6 or 7 eggs!
I was amazed to see pigeon and pheasant eggs on sale and think one of the pigeon eggs must have slipped through the net. They also sell salted duck eggs which I am told are delicious, so one day I will have to give them a go. There doesn't seem any reason not to eat other eggs apart from the ones we are familiar with, and I do wonder what we feed our chickens back in UK to produce such large eggs!
One thing they sell here, and I saw being sold for the first time this week, is 14 day old fertilised eggs. The chicks were just beginning to peck their way out of the shell. I had heard of this, they are usually sold as street food, and this is where we saw them for sale. When I had first heard of this practice I had though it was interesting as a blog post. But I have to say my horror at seeing this left me unable to even think about photographing them. And in case you are interested the Chinese just eat them uncooked, as is, feathers, bones and beaks. Actually made me feel quite ill at the thought. This is the first time since I've been here that any food has illicited this kind of reaction from me. I hope never to com across it again. Thankfully it seems to be dying out as a practice. I do hope so.

2 comments:

Snowy said...

Oh, that's so awful. I saw a tv programme about Chinese culture last week and there are great differences between their ideas and ours.
What a wonderful experience for you to live in Shanghai; I'm really enjoying reading about it. x

Coby said...

I had heard about these fertilised eggs but had no idea they were eaten just as they are. I wonder if it doesn't originally spring from (perceived or real?) health benefits from eating the chicks at this stage? Hard to imagine seeing someone eat them though, let alone doing it yourself. So many delicious things though that you are yet to experience Jacqui and *that* I look forward to hearing about:D