What are century eggs?

Century eggs 皮蛋

Century eggs are disgusting cured eggs invented at a time when you needed to herd your sheep somewhere in the mountains and you wanted to bring along a supply of lightweight proteins.

Nowadays, we do not need to do that anymore but there are still people who yearn for this on some days, like me. Definitely an acquired taste, century eggs are a gooey, smelly, slightly bitter treat that can be eaten cold (like in the picture, with pickled ginger and wasabi) or cooked with minced lean pork in a rice congee in Chinese Cantonese style.