In southern China, the "Hundred-Year-Old Egg" is a very popular side dish for breakfast. Called pidan, it is a black-brown colored, hard-boiled egg with a translucent egg white, a grayish blue yolk and a distinct sulfur smell. Most Chinese like to dip the pidan in soy sauce and eat it with breakfast congee, or rice porridge (though I must point out that not all Chinese like pidan; my father, for one, loathes it).

Most foreigners cringe when they see this Chinese delicacy. Both the sight and the smell are so unusual that many people find it revolting. But it really can be quite delicious when cooked into the congee with minced chicken.

Bryan was first introduced to pidan during one of our dim sum meals in New York's Chinatown. I have learned not to tell him exactly what he is eating until he has at least tried a bite. After raving about how delicious the congee was, he asked me what the dark-looking pieces were. I said "Chinese mushrooms" at first, but eventually, I told him what he was eating. After close examination of the pidan in its original form, Bryan affectionately called it "The Hundred-Year-Old Egg." It sure looks like it has been sitting there for a hundred years!

Explanatory Notes:

Contrary to its looks, pidans are not rotten eggs that have been kept for a hundred years. They are made from fresh duck eggs (I don't know why chicken eggs are not used) wrapped in layers of mud and straw, and then placed in lye for at least a month. Apparently, the basic properties in lye 'cooks' the egg and hardens it so that the egg appears hard-boiled after the process.

(selected from 101 Stories for Foreigners to Understand Chinese People by Yi S. Ellis and Bryan D. Ellis, published by China Intercontinental Press in 2012)