Sometimes, something as prosaic as tea egg can be a revelation to the taste buds.
When one thinks about tea eggs, almost inevitably, we think of crowded pasar malams where spring rolls drenched in oil are placed side by side with sweet corn, and maybe a hotpot cooking tea eggs.
And then you decide to try the tea eggs, out of whim.
You take a bite, and the awful tasting sauce, together with the overcooked, powdery egg yolk is unforgettable, for the wrong reasons.
You always tell yourself to swear from buying tea eggs from pasar malams again. Until you visit the pasar malam the next time, and promptly forgot the promise, and buy one again.
The tea egg I tasted in Tea Bone Zen Mind (Yes, they don't only serve tea), is nothing like that.
How amazing can a tea egg be? You ask? An egg is an egg right?
If its done right, very good. I took one bite into it, half-expecting the powdery egg yolk to assualt my tongue.
No. I was so wrong. In it, was the soft, moist, custard-ly goodness of a half boiled egg yolk. With the jelly-like egg white and the warm gooey egg yolk, you finally realise how wonderful a tea egg, cooked well, can be.
And after you eat it, you will always remember your promise never to eat pasar malam tea eggs again.
Yes, they do have quality control over here, where they make sure every egg yolk is not fully cooked;
like when they make sure (perhaps by turning the eggs time-to-time when boiling) that every egg yolk is at the centre of the egg, and not at its side,
or that they make sure the sauce is done right, or else they throw way the whole batch (which they did when they initially experimented with the recipie, i'm told)
For $3, its a bargain, considering the effort to make sure every egg, its yolk, its sauce, is done to perfection.
