I can't help but imagine the origins. Long ago, someone either found an egg or tried to preserve an egg this way. They opened it up and found ... that ... and ate it anyway. After not dying, a delicacy was born.

I imagine this is how a lot of previously unthinkable things that required aging were made. Cheese, wine, etc.

My favourite in that respect is a kind of mushroom that you can buy in Finland.

It's deadly poisonous. Unless you cook it thrice and discard the water each time.

I can't fathom the thought process that went into finding this out.

The delicacys of today are the desperate hungers last find of yesterday. Rat-embryos? Delicious, if everything else is eaten.

> Tastes kinda gross though (but I might be biased)

For context: according to Wikipedia the yolk contains hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. Hydrogen sulfide produces a distinct "rotten egg" smell, ammonia is basically what makes cat urine smell like cat urine.

I guess it might be an acquired taste and there are likely preparations that make the taste more palatable and mask the smell, but it's fair to say that it's not much of a bias to find century eggs repulsive if you're used to less pungent edibles.

The level of smell really varies a lot (as does the texture).

Weird that you mentioned it today. I just made one for the first time today after visiting the Chinese supermarket (I am not East Asian).

Century egg is definitely one of the weirdest smelling things I have ever eaten. It smells like H2S. Took me back to my chemistry lab sessions.

> It smells like H2S

I cant recall that much of my high school organic chemistry but I would think that H2S would be a degradation product of spoilt eggs

Scrolling to the end on mobile and checking out the other unique egg dishes referenced is something I can not unsee no matter how much I want to.

They are awesome with pickled ginger.

But have you ever had it in congee with salted fish or pork? Game changer!