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Pink eggs

Strolling on a local market in Asia you might find some strange and exotic things. One of them would be the Pink eggs.
No they don't come from pink chickens. They are specially know by Chinese who see those eggs as a delicatessen, they are more expensive then normal eggs.



Pink for an egg is of course a strange colour, but you really should buy one open it. You will be surprised that the egg is black inside!
These eggs are know as "Century eggs", "hundred-year eggs" or even "thousand-year eggs".
Before there were any fridges the Chinese developed and refined a way to preserve eggs. These eggs can be kept several weeks and even a few months, depending on the quality of the preservation process. Eggs are coated with a paste of clay, tea, quicklime, salt and wood ashes.
The eggs are then put in a jar, filled with rice chaff. 3 months are needed for the mud like coat to harden into the crust and at that time eggs are ready for consumption, mmmm tasty!\



Some say the eggs are preserved in horse urine. This is a myth but can be understood. The eggs have a strong ammonia smell, because the PH level of the eggs have slightly changed through the fermentation process. So this give them a smell similar to horse urine.

Many Chinese restaurants offer these eggs in different plate combinations. They are seen as delicatessen and Chinese just love them!
Personally it is not my favourite kind of egg, but I tried it many times. The eggs tastes like and egg but got a rather strong after taste.

Enjoy!