Quail Eggs Boiled in Soy Sauce

This post is pretty tame, considering my last food-related post involved eating a live, dismembered octopus, but I felt like adding to my brief history with quail eggs.

In general, I’m not the biggest fan of eggs. Unless they’re runny and smothered in Tabasco, I avoid them, especially bwhen they’re boiled.  Today was different.

I saw a bag of quail eggs boiled in soy sauce (메추리 알), all brown and salty looking, and made an impulse buy. I’m glad I did.

When I opened the bag I got a big whiff of soy sauce. The eggs were drowning in the stuff. With their brown color, they looked pickled, not boiled, and I  expected a salty flavor.

I got a surprise instead. The egg tasted sweet. I quickly grabbed another — handful.

Aside from the sweetness, the best part is the way they stay moist all the way through, even the yolks.

The one other time I had pickled quail eggs, I thought I’d eaten a mouthful of sawdust.  Not only were the yolks dry but they were quick-acting — I wondered if a cyanide capsule would respond as quickly as the desertification of my oral cavity once I bit into the yolk.

I doubt I’ll crave them when I sit down to watch TV, the way I do with, say, tortilla chips.  They were, however, a change of pace from my usual snacking options, limited as they are by my Western, first-world concept of snack food.

If you’re entertaining in your apartment, hiking, or going to a baseball game, quail eggs are a solid alternative to squid jerky, with an added bonus: Your breath won’t smell too bad (but your farts might!).

–Daniel Daugherty

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