Day 253

"Naughty" Quail Eggs: Today's new food is another selection from the stash that my friend's parents brought me from their travels. I've been eyeing these since they first brought me the food, but I was waiting for the right frame of mind to try them. If you long time followers remember correctly, I tried some preserved, salted duck eggs during the first week of the blog and wasn't that impressed with them, so I assumed that these would be more of the same.

The first thing I noticed about these was the name - apparently these were spicy and "naughty," which was pretty hilarious to read. They were packaged in Taiwan, and the tiny little eggs appeared to be hard-boiled, then possibly pickled in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and red pepper. I love raw quail egg in several sushi dishes, so I hoped these were at least better than the duck eggs I'd previously tried.

 After opening the tightly vacuum-packed package, I popped one of the gumdrop-sized eggs out and took a look. The shell had obviously been peeled before being packaged, and the slick surface was extremely dark brown (almost black) from the soy sauce. I cut one in half, and the inside featured a tiny cooked yolk - when combined with the brown interior, it almost looked like chocolate and peanut butter.

I took a bite of one, and was surprisingly impressed. The soy sauce/sugar mixture gave each one a sweet/salty flavor, with a spicy bite at the end from the red pepper - "naughty," indeed. Texture-wise, the outer section of the egg was slightly firm and chewy, which paired well with the softer yolk. I was seriously prepared to not enjoy these at all, but I ate a few of them before stopping. Thumbs up.