The Century Egg Challenge!

Century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg and thousand-year-old egg is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with little flavor or taste. The transforming agent in century egg is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of egg from around 9 to 12 or more.[1] This chemical process causes an "inorganic version" of fermentation, which breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats into simpler, flavorful ones.

In this corner, the reigning champion... "The Egg Eater!"

In this corner, the challenger... "Not Egg-sactly Sure!"

(Note the sceptical onlooker over her shoulder.)

The champ makes his move!

The challenger dives right in!

Just minutes before this challenge began, the International Century Egg Governing Body passed a new ruling - Article 4, Section G that states "No unsupervised head to head challenges may occur without the written consent of the host country." Many requests were made to the Chinese government prior to, and during this event, but due to the graphic nature of this sport, and the fact that many other countries consider it to be a form of torture, I am not allowed to disclose the actual winner of this rare egg-off. Many involved in the event feel that with the up coming 2008 Olympics, the negative publicity generated by this type of sport would adversely affect ticket sales.

Click on the blog entry title for more information on Century Eggs!