🍽️ Weishan Lake Salted Egg

Lake-mud cured duck egg, oily yolk.

Weishan Lake Salted Duck Egg is a specialty around Weishan Lake in Jining, Shandong, thanks to the lake's mallard ducks and its mud. Fresh duck eggs are cured by being coated in salted lake mud or soaked in brine for a period of aging. Cut open, the egg white is tender and savory with an orange-red yolk that runs oily and sandy-grainy, rich yet not cloying. Moderately salty with a full oil-yielding yolk, it is a daily accompaniment to porridge around the lake and a common gift between relatives. The ducks feed on the lake's fish, shrimp and snails, so the yolk's color and oiliness are especially fine; steamed and cut while hot, the red oil slowly seeps out, perfectly stirring up the appetite for a bowl of plain congee.