What do you get when you cross an egg with a tea bag?

Here’s a question which you might not have thought of before (I know I hadn’t!) - What do you get when you cross an egg with a tea bag? Answer: A very brown tea-flavored (?) egg!

Tea Egg

When I saw Echo placing tea bags in a pan with half-a-dozen or so eggs I though she had gone mad for a second or two until it was explained to me that this was a common Chinese specialty prepared by boiling eggs in tea. The theory goes that the tea seeps through the cracked shell, thereby flavoring the egg and giving it a marbleized appearance. Here’s what they turned out like:

Tea Egg

The taste is certainly interesting and not at all unpleasant but it’s not something I’d want to eat everyday. From what I’ve gathered this term Chinese/Japanese cooking in general is a lot more healthy (lots of vegetables etc) and hence they don’t have any of the obesity problems the West are facing right now - coined the ‘meat-ball’ condition by my friend, and aptly so I think!

You can find instructions for cooking your own tea eggs (cha ye dan) here.

Enjoyed this post? Please subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date.