Local chefs in Dongyang, Zhejiang province (in eastern China) have a two-thousand-year-old delicacy that they are hoping to take further afield: eggs boiled in the urine of little boys.
If you want to try to recreate your own Dongyang urine egg experience, the recipe is really quite simple. All you need is a good source for urine – more specifically it has to be the urine of boys aged under ten (FYI: asking around for little boy urine is the first step to an awkward conversation with your neighbors that goes something like this “my name is Jim and I am a registered sex offender”). Anyway, if you find your way around that little complication (in Dongyang they are totally cool with it and cooks just collect their pee from elementary schools), the rest is really simple. First, the eggs are boiled in urine in their shells. Next, they are taken out of the urine, the shells are removed and they are put back into the urine to boil for a full day and a full night – bon appetit.
From China Daily:
hawkers to sell the boy down the street selling eggs, street an odor, Dongyang people say that this is a taste of spring.
The little boy pee eggs are believed to cure fevers and provide eaters with a burst of energy.
Before you rush to judgment, consider this: the good people of Zhejiang province have been enjoying the Dongyang for a couple of millenia, so they might be onto something – and word on the street is that the pee eggs are being mass produced in the hope of finding external markets – presumably in countries where health authorities either don’t mind seeing little boy urine in the list of ingredients, or where they will be prepared to turn a blind eye.
