Huangpu Eggs

Huangpu Eggs

　　Huangpu Eggs is an affordable and delicious traditional delicacy, resembling a shiny, golden piece of cloth. It gets its name from being created by the boat dwellers of Huangpu. Legend has it that a long time ago, the Huangpu area was still a stretch of tidal flats. One evening, a family of boatmen had unexpected guests, and with no time to buy ingredients, they could only entertain their visitors with the few remaining eggs they had. In their haste, they cooked the eggs in a way that was neither quite scrambled nor fried. Though it didn’t resemble either dish, the guests were highly impressed by the taste. After it spread to downtown Guangzhou, local chefs studied and refined the recipe, turning it into a historic famous dish.

　　The ingredients for this dish are simple: eggs, fine salt, monosodium glutamate, and lard. But the preparation is meticulous. First, crack the eggs into a container, add an appropriate amount of salt, MSG, and lard, and whisk into an egg mixture. Then clean the pan, heat it over high flame, add some lard to coat the bottom, then pour in more lard. While pouring the egg mixture into the pan, keep stirring with a spatula to shape it into a cloth-like form. Remove it from the pan just as it’s cooked and serve it on a plate. Its characteristics are tenderness, smoothness, fragrance, and richness. It’s said the traditional method involves cooking it over charcoal fire, but nowadays piped gas is commonly used.

　　Some of the most distinctive dishes in Guangzhou may already be familiar to you, giving you a preliminary understanding of Lingnan cuisine. But that’s not enough. If you have the chance, you should also try Guangzhou’s famous dim sum. Once you’ve tasted these specialties, your appreciation of “Eating in Guangzhou” will deepen. You might marvel at their exquisite and lifelike presentation, cheer for their delicious flavors, or cherish them as wonderful memories for life.