Today, June 25th, is a special festival day in Chinese culture – Duan-wu Festival, or commonly known as Dragon Boat Festival. It falls on the lunar calendar of May 5th, each year. It also officially kicks off the summer in Chinese tradition. Chinese usually celebrates this festival by eating Zhongzi, or sticky rice wrapped in reed leaves. During this time, we also put calamus and wormwood leaves on the doors and windows to repel flies, moths, centipedes, etc., the typical little summer creatures, from the house. Kiddos will wear 5-colored threads on their wrist and ankles to protect them from invisible evils and keep them healthy and happy.
There is a special tradition in Jiangsu province, where I come from, which is to eat lightly salted tea eggs during Duan-wu Festival. It is fragrant, pretty, with marble patterns on the eggs. They are also my favorite breakfast!
Here is how we do it at home:
Cook eggs with cold water in a pot (We usually do 24 eggs in one batch).
Bring water to a boil, then reduce the heat, and simmer the eggs for 10 minutes. The eggs don’t need to be fully cooked, since we are going to cook them again.
Remove pot from the oven, then drain and rinse the eggs using cold water to cool them down. Once cold, tap eggs with the back of a spoon to crack the shells. Leave the egg shells on, so they help to form the marble patterns in the end.
Add 3 cups of water to the pot, 2 table spoons of regular soy sauce, 1 table spoon of black soy sauce, 1 table spoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of five-spice powder, and 1 tablespoon of tea. I usually use jasmine tea – I just love jasmine!
Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce heat, keep the lid on and simmer for 30 minutes.
Remove the pot from the oven, and let eggs steep for at least 4 hours. Eggs unpeeled and soaked in the original broth can be kept in refrigerator for up to a week. They can be a nice addition to you picnic or a pick-me-up light meal on a hiking trip!
