CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Earl Ching uses an unpeeled egg to demonstrate the egg-eating form that won him second place in Saturday's 1,000-year-old egg-eating competition at the Splendor of China event.
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Eggs for the very brave
Pi dan, a Chinese delicacy, can make you feel 1,000 years old
Eating contests. Why are they so popular? Both the contestants and the audience need cast-iron gullets. And the edible items can't be too tasty, because otherwise, frankly, it's just pigging out.
Last year, the Splendor of China exhibition had a manapua-eating contest, and the contestants apparently liked the manapua just a little too much, sticking around and stuffing their faces after the bell had rung.
Enter the dragon, er, the 1,000-year-old eggs.
The infamous Chinese delicacy called "pi dan" has all it takes for a Masters of Mastication tournament. The only prep required is to peel each one of its briny shell; they can be chewed, nibbled or gulped, positing some variations in gobbling technique; although a delicacy for some, they're noxious for many, which means gastronomic gladiators will quickly vacate the arena, sometimes at a brisk trot.
And so, as a local Girl Scout troop walked on the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall stage Saturday, wearing sterile plastic gloves and carrying boxes of pi dan as if they were containers of sloshing nitroglycerine, it was game on for the First Annual Splendor of China 1,000-Year-Old Egg Eating Contest, or FASC1YOEEC. .
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Contestants ate their way through a plate of five eggs apiece in front of an audience.
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The 10 contestants were instructed to consume five eggs, of which only one was prepeeled, and the first three to finish would win a variety of Beijing Olympics logo-wear.
Maybe less than a minute passed before V. Ginny Young was declared the winner, followed by Earl Ching and Cy Feng. Young peeled and popped in a businesslike manner, while the rest of the contestants made faces, swigged water and generally looked alarmed.
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Winner V. Ginny Young collected her prize -- logo merchandise for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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With an exaggerated stagger as he left the stage, Ching said he preferred pi dan "made in the real old style" and that the fare was gooey, compared to the dryness of manapua.
"It took me a while to like pi dan, but now I really do," champion Young said. "I'll eat them any time, but never so many at once. I think five is the max. Luckily, the last one was really soft. Now, if you'll excuse me, is the bathroom over there?"
COMMENTARY
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
A 1,000-year-old duck egg was peeled for Saturday's egg-eating contest at Splendor of China fair at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. A preserving process that involves soaking the egg in a salt-and-lye solution has turned the white of the egg into a dark gel and the yolk into green mush.
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Not egg-zactly appetizing
Pi dan are dark and gooey but don't taste as bad as they look
As the old joke goes around Immigration, folks emigrate to America for two reasons -- to experience freedom and democracy, and to escape their native cuisine. Every culture has an endemic dish that is legendary for awfulness, generally undeserved.
Filipinos have bagoong, Scots have haggis, American Indians have pemmican, Koreans have sannakji, Scandinavians have lutefisk, Caroline Islanders have fruit-bat soup, Germans have blood sausage, the French have all their smelly cheeses and the English have everything that isn't breakfast.
Although the list goes on, high upon it must be the Chinese delicacy known as pi dan -- or "1,000-year-old eggs" or "century eggs." These gourmet items have a fearsome gastronomic reputation that is entirely unearned, possibly because although they really are eggs, they aren't actually 1,000 years old. Not even close. Maybe a couple of months.
Still, any egg that's been lying about, refrigerated or not, for a couple of months has devolved into a hard-shelled ammonia grenade. We've all smelt it and dealt it. How enormously bad can it reek after a millennium? Danger: UXB. Luckily, the myth of the 1,000-year-old egg is mightier than the reality of the dish.
Pi dan actually comes from a Chinese desire to preserve eggs during those periods when eggs are scarce, and we're talking all manner of eggs, including duck and goose.
The science of it is pretty simple. Although the hard-shell egg is a sterile environment, the shell is still permeable.
To preserve the egg, the shell was traditionally lathered with a paste of clay, lime, salt and wood ash, rocketing up the alkaline pH value of the mixture, rather like vinegar. The eggs were liberally coated with the goop, rolled in chaff or straw to keep them from sticking together, and then jammed into dark containers to marinate for a few months. The ballpark figure is 100 days.
These are not to be confused with Scotch Eggs, which are hard-boiled eggs wrapped in sausage and breadcrumbs and deep-fried. That item hails from the deep-rooted English culinary custom of trying to make all food crusty and brown.
Modern pi dan production methods involve soaking the eggs in a salt-and-lye solution for a fortnight and then packing them in plastic. Those with a fine taste for such things say that only the traditional methods have the best results, however, and they can tell what region the pi dan is from by subtle variations in taste. The French even have a word for this -- "terroir," meaning flavors imparted by particular regions of the Earth.
Oh, yes, the flavor.
Once it's peeled and opened, pi dan doesn't look very egg-like, except for the shape. The "whites" have mutated into a slippery, coffee-colored gel -- often with snowflake-like patterns -- that has very little taste.
The yolk, which we normally recognize as a runny, cheerful yellow, is instead a massy, emerald-green geode that settles on the palate with a vague, cheese-like flavor.
If you're expecting it to taste like "egg," you're in for a disappointment. Folks who like these things often rhapsodize about the texture and color, not about the flavor or odor -- the latter is, frankly, still a bit ammonia-like, giving oomph to the Chinese legend of 1,000-year-old eggs being pickled in horse urine. Isn't true. The taste is far too subtle for that!
Once you've had one, however, you realize the fearsome reputation is undeserved. You might even reach for more than one.
Pi dan is an oddity here in the West, but it's pretty much a staple in the East. You buy them on the street the way we buy hot dogs. In Honolulu's Chinatown, if you pay more than $2 for one, you're paying too much.
Some local restaurants, such as Hong Kong Harbor View at Aloha Tower, have pi dan on the menu, often combined with other dishes. In some Chinese and Japanese recipes, pi dan is sliced or cubed and used as a garnish.
You can even combine it with fresh eggs and make an omelet. There's sort of a yin/yang feeling to that notion.