Stir-fried Eggs with Stones

Stir-fried Eggs with Stones

　　Cooking and ingredient selection are directly related. Fresh free-range eggs stir-fried with stones become a long-standing local specialty dish in Lingchuan — “Stir-fried Eggs with Stones.” Legend has it that Ji Zi, the founder of Go, often played without eating or sleeping. His attendants, making use of what was at hand, stir-fried eggs with ironware and stones from the mountain. The aroma immediately attracted Ji Zi, and thus “Stir-fried Eggs with Stones” has been passed down to this day.

　　 The stones must be selected from Qizi Mountain, about the size of walnuts, with smooth surfaces. Add an appropriate amount of cooking oil to an iron pan, then place the selected black and white stones into the hot oil to heat them up. Take five fresh free-range eggs, add chopped scallions, and beat them together. Free-range chickens, which often eat fresh grass, produce eggs that contain five times more vitamin A than regular eggs.

　　 This is a specially made flat iron pan, heated over a fire. Heated stones and an appropriate amount of hot oil are placed inside, and the egg mixture is poured evenly into the pan. The heat from the iron plate and the stones quickly cooks the eggs, while the minerals and trace elements abundant in the stones are also released. The air fills with the aroma of the eggs — a natural and rustic delicacy.