One of my favorite dishes in China is pidan. It is a tasty fermented duck’s egg with a very particular flavor. It is dry and salty, something like an old avocado
Although it is not that appealing for the human eye, when you look at it, you can’t help but feel curiosity about what is that black egg in front of you, and most likely you’ll end up trying it.

Here is a quote with a bit of history and more descriptive facts about this Chinese delicacy:

“In earlier times visitors demonstrated their respect, awe and sometimes fear of Imperial China by bringing gifts for the emperor, members of the Imperial Court, and other high personages they expected or wanted to meet.

Abiding by a very strict formal etiquette in all meetings with members of the Imperial Court and ministries was also an essential requirement for foreign visitors, with the most notorious of these requirements for Imperial audiences being the kowtow, which required that individuals get down on their knees and touch the floor or ground with their foreheads.

When Europeans began visiting China and were confronted with the kowtow it was a shock to both their dignity and feelings of superiority. Some were so incensed that they were expected to bow down to a “heathen emperor” that they talked of showing the Chinese what’s what with the force of arms.

The Chinese no longer expect visitors to lower themselves to the floor, but they still expect that they demonstrate both goodwill and friendship toward China in a variety of other ways.

One of the most interesting tests of both appreciation for Chinese culture and friendship for China (the latter meaning that one is willing to go well beyond the half-way point to prove friendship), is weather or not one can eat a pidan.

A pidan is a so-called 1,000 year-old egg. Of course, a pidan in not one thousand years old, although it looks like, smells like, and tastes like it could be.
Pidan are “cultured” by coating with them with a layer of lime and clay for six to ten weeks. The lime soaks through the eggshell, turning the egg white to a bluish brown, and the yolk to a dark green.

Not being able to stomach a pidan does not mean you cannot develop a satisfactory relationship with Chinese or do business with them. But downing a mucky “1,000-year-old” egg with gusto will certainly raise your stock in everyone’s eyes.

Actually, there are many other things on a typical Chinese menu that are more challenging than pidan, things whose names alone are enough to discourage most newcomers to Chinese cuisine.
Declining such delicacies should be done with diplomacy and self-deprecating humor to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings.”

Lafayette De Mente, Boy©, “The Chinese Have a Word for It”, Passport Books, 2000.

Photographs from k-shoku.com