I’m always amazed at the things that are sold on the street in China.

On a recent trip to Kaip­ing City, our group stopped by a small town called Chikan– which a few friends imme­di­ately began to refer to as, “Chicken town”. Famous for a pic­turesque strip of row houses along a small river, a bazaar sell­ing local snacks and trin­kets now buzzes on the street to lure the groups of tourists who stop in for a peek at the old village.

Amongst the treats and trin­kets sold on the street are eggs– Ostrich eggs, Chicken eggs, and other eggs which were listed to me, but I was unable to under­stand due to a heavy local dialect. Some eggs were sold raw, but most were pre­served, buried in bas­kets of salt after being soaked in what seemed like tepid water doused with salt, as I observed one egg lady doing in the photo below.

I’m not a big fan of eggs, and though I do like the Chi­nese pre­served eggs in my con­gee, I didn’t think these eggs would travel well with an after­noon left of sight­see­ing. And if any­thing hap­pened to them, I would prob­a­bly lose a friend or two on the long bus ride home. So with much restraint I refrained from buy­ing an Ostrich egg. As I am think­ing about what to pre­pare for din­ner tonight, I won­der if I should have taken my chances with cradling this odd ingre­di­ent home.

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