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yay! 100 year eggs! Delicious with tofu, pork shreds (are there veggie version of shredded pork?) and a soy-sauce-based sauce. Yummmmm!

That egg looks so, so good! I'm going to have to find one right now! :)

Lovely story, thanks for sharing!

that first pic is just...vom

I've always been curious: What do they taste like? Sulfur? Egg? Salt?

My mom is a huge fan of 100-year eggs, though I never developed a taste for it. Maybe a morsel or two in a bowl of congee, but that's all I can take.

I didn't become a vegetarian until high school and, by then, I'd eaten plenty of the odd delicacies treasured by my Mexican and Filipino grandparents, like tripe-filled menudo, abalone, dinuguan, sea snails, etc. Now, people are always surprised that I had such an adventurous palate as a child, but refuse to eat anything with a face as an adult.

It actually pains me to look at that picture

Wow. That 100 year old egg looks amazing.

I love abalone, and any kind of weird food from my childhood except for bitter melon. Gross. Mmmmm that looks amazing.

@slowdown, they taste like a kind of creamy flavour on your tongue, not salty, just a creamy flavour that's hard to describe.

A bit geltainous..

It looks gross, but is AWESOME in congee and I could eat a big bowl of it every day with some sliced pork.

They do not taste or smell like sulfur and

Great story! I'm intrigued and now I really want to try a hundred year egg.

Looove 100 year old eggs, especially in congee or on tofu with scallions and soy sauce. There was an episode of Fear Factor where contestants were eating giant bugs, pig rectums, and....100 year old eggs!!! Guess they really are that scary looking to those that didn't grow up with them.

It's funny, I've never had any of the weird foods associated with my own heritage, like the head cheese and black rice, but I lived near Mexico and married a Chinese guy so I've got quite a list of strange stuff I've put in my mouth. Just off the top of my head:

Jellyfish = yum. Not much taste (it's seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil) but has a pleasant crisp-tender texture.

Sea cucumber = blech!

Raw snails = meh. I'm not much for shellfish in general, except scallops.

tripe = I prefer it Mexican style and crispy, but I've had good tripe with hot peppers for dim sum. Otherwise it seems fairly bland and boring to me.

duck palms = surprisingly good with vinegar and cucumbers. I have never tried chicken feet on the bone. I don't see how there's anything to eat off it. My husband has childhood memories; he refused to eat them because they looked like dragon claws.

barbacoa = yum*. *Pura carne only. I have never had an eyeball. Mom got hazed by her co-workers when one put one in the end of her taco. It was something she never forgot.

sesos (cow brains) = yum

menudo = I don't crave this the way my little brothers do, but it's okay once in a while.

octopus = rubbery. I hear you're supposed to cook it with a cork to tenderize it. I might like it that way; I like calimari.

I probably had similar experiences as Emily Ho. Being Chinese growing up in a western country with a Chinese chef for a father. But I'm not vegetarian and have never failed to try what's put in front of me (or actively seek out the weirdest food in the country I'm in).

As kids we used to steal a packet of dried cuttlefish from the pantry and hide in the garage to eat our snack. Times have changed huh?

We call them thousand-year-old eggs in my family. I used to think that they were literally a thousand years old and wondered why the asian markets weren't running out of them.

The yolks taste creamy, not sulfurous, just kind of a thick greek yogurt texture without much taste. The "white" parts have a jello texture. I like how my mom mixes chopped thousand-year-old eggs with fresh tofu and cilantro, drizzled with some sesame oil.

This particular blog was beautifully written.

Whoa..... I have never heard of these. And I must say, I give your father a great deal of credit for eating them. You as well for even taking a smalll taste. I am pretty open minded - but WOW... I think I will pass.

I guess it's true what they say, you eat with your eyes first. And my eyes want to throw up. ;) Sorry... may taste delicious... just can't. I wouldn't be surprised if I was missing out, but eewwww.

I eat every wierdo thing I can find...love bitter melon, organ meats, sea cucumber, jellyfish...BUT...I have never been able to handle these eggs aside from a tiny bit in congee. It's a textural thing I think.

i used to hate these eggs (honestly made me want to vomit everytime i had it accidentally). ironically, i've expanded my palate a lot in the last years (thanks to moving from uni-ethnic (chinese) suburb to multi-ethnic urban area) and i love them now. the yolk is creamy and the white part is jelly like. an odd texture but very good. however, i really can't eat it on its own. usually mixed with something else in a cold dish. on congee its good too.

mmm, pei-dan!!

We always had these around when I was growing up. In HK & in the Chinatowns I lived near (both the NY & London ones) they used to be sold out of a giant drums and individually coated with a thick layer of organic material you scraped off, then rinsed off clean, then finally peeling the eggs and slicing them into wedges to go into congee or as a little side dish to go with dinner.

Now they come in antiseptic little styrofoam containers, shrink-wrapped individually into plastic straightjackets. Not nearly as evocative an experience. But I still love and eat them. And my non-Chinese husband loved them right away too!

WHOA! cool, thank you for that picture. I've never seen a peeled one. I'd like to think I'd eat it if offered, but I do tend to dislike jelly textures.