I hadn’t made egg foo yung in many years. In fact, I hadn’t even thought about it in many years. I recall that, thirty years ago before I moved to San Francisco, egg foo yung was a popular item in Chinese restaurants in the South. And yet I don’t recall ever seeing it on menus in San Francisco, where the Chinese cookery is much more authentic.
In any case, I am covered up with eggs (each hen has been laying every day), and I can’t figure out what to do with them all. It seems as though half of my driving these days is taking eggs to friends. This afternoon, foo yung popped into my head like a vision, and I was so enthusiastic that I immediately went down to the kitchen and made myself an early supper.
No Chinese vegetables? No problem. I used shredded cabbage, onion, and thinly sliced celery.
It’s the sauce that makes the foo yung. Without the sauce, you’re just eating an omelet in which the cook forgot the cheese. The sauce needs as much zing as you can get into it. I used vegetable bouillon in the liquid in addition to the soy sauce. A teensy touch of sugar and vinegar gives it a slight sweet and sour spin. Garlic powder helps, along with lots of pepper. Cook it well. Make it foam.
By the way, someone recently told me the price of eggs at Walmart these days. If I’m not mistaken, it was something absurdly cheap like 46 cents a dozen. How can that be? Is it that they’re importing eggs from China now? What scares me about egg prices that low is what the chickens are fed and what miserable lives they must lead. In the best of all possible worlds, the animals that help provide us with food would live behind our houses. And they would have names.
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Hi David, thanks, you gave me an idea what to make for dinner. I don’t shop at Walmart, but any large super market has real low egg prices and I assume they’re high production eggs, and the animals must be suffering. Kind of like they have to row night and day to make their goal.
We eat with our eyes first. This is a beautiful plate of food. I am fortunate to receive eggs from my daughter’s chickens.
When I moved to a ranch in California 3 years ago my first order of business was building a chicken coop. Safe to say I was inspired by your work with Ken at the Abbey.
For a time the chickens were eating every egg they laid, and the coop was nothing but a frustrating chore. Supplementing their diet with oyster shell did the trick, and I am also getting an egg a day. Thanks for always passing along your experience!
Awesome!
For years, I was unable to find organic chicken feed. I bought from a local mill or from a local agricultural feed supply company. The chickens never really liked the food. They’d pick through it and waste a lot. Also, from time to time we had problems with weak eggshells and so fell back on oyster shells.
Then about six months ago I discovered that Tractor Supply sells organic chicken feed in 40 pound bags. Not only do the chickens love it and not waste any feed, we’re also getting superb shells now. I don’t know if Tractor Supply has stores in California.
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