Now pay attention: I’m going to tell you about an egg you’ve never ever seen before. It’s called zaodan (糟蛋).  As an adventurous eater, I’m on a mission to uncover all the special eggs in town. So far, I’ve tried everything from snowflake-patterned century eggs (aka “thousand-year-old eggs”) to double-yolk salted eggs, marinated runny eggs and the most awful: feathered eggs. So I thought my taste buds had sampled nearly every weird flavor of egg out there. Recently, though, when I entered my beloved Daoxiangcun (a laozihao bakery chain) to see if they had launched any new products recently, something strange and ovoid caught my eye.

Atop the showcase of the usual local floury sweets was a transparent plastic jar containing huge, gray, shining eggs half-immersed in a suspicious brown liquid.

I scanned the label on the jar …

Ingredients: Duck eggs, rice wine and salt.
Preparation time: 4 months.
Cost: RMB 6.
Origin: Pinghu (平湖), Zhejiang.
Serving suggestion: Puncture, tear and eat.

What a discovery! I bought one up and rushed home.

It felt soft, like a water-filled balloon, all because there is no eggshell, which had fallen apart during the months of being brined in rice wine. The only thing holding this egg together in an egg-shape was the layer of translucent membrane. If you’re the squeamish type, close your eyes: The next photo might shock you.

After I punctured the membrane, the pungent egg white oozed out, with a texture like yogurt. It was much saltier than sea water, while full of the fragrance of rice wine. Probably the best way to enjoy it is to scoop a bit out of its soft envelope, and then stir it into porridge.

If you must eat it “plain,” try to enlist about six other friends to share, or else you’ll consume a week’s worth of sodium intake and get a little tipsy. You won’t want to miss the yolk, which looks like solid sunshine, is soft like a mousse and tastes slightly sweet.

In Chinese, zao refers to rice wine, while dan means eggs. Hence the name: zaodan (糟蛋).  Try it out – it’s an acquired taste, but you just might develop a zest for zaodan. 

Try it: Daoxiangcun. Daily 8am-7.30pm. 49 Zhongguancun Dajie, Haidian District. 稻香村. 海淀区中关村大街49号