In a city where people love their snacks, especially sweet ones, it’s not too surprising that one of the more popular forms of street food is the Eggette. The eggette is known as Gai Daan Jai in Cantonese, which translates to little chicken eggs.
You can sometimes find these in Chinatowns across the world, but just as with most street food there is no way to recreate the sights, smells, and general atmosphere of where these things come from originally. Freshly made these are slightly crispy on the outside while soft, moist, and airy on the inside.
The Gai Daan Jai pictured above was freshly made in a food stand right next to the Shau Kei Wan MTR Station [explorehk.com]. Note the holes punched in the paper bag to prevent steam from softening the crisp exterior which clearly indicates very good attention to detail. The Shau Kei Wan station is pretty far away from everything on Hong Kong Island, but it’s the closest stop to the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence, which is where we were going that day.
As a member of the waffle family, eggettes are cooked by heating batter between two hot griddles with egg shaped indentations. It’s not clear if the name comes from the fact that the waffle bubbles are vaguely egg shaped or if it is due to the egg content in the batter, but both seem to make a lot of sense.
This post was submitted to Travel Photo Thursday [budgettravelerssandbox.com], a weekly collection of travel photos hosted by Budget Traveler’s Sandbox.
Mmmmm, delicious 🙂
Holes punched in the bag to prevent steam from softening the crisp exterior — Street food with attention to detail.
I’ve never had or heard of an eggette.
They taste kind of like a fortune cookie, but with a soft interior.
Very interesting and they do sound yummy. What a great idea do incorporating steam vents!
I tried these when I was in HK…love at first bite!
Eggettes to me sounded like a cross between Eggos and Rockettes. Thanks for clarifying! 🙂
I’m not so sure your first instinct might not be better..
We had some great “street food waffles” in Dresden, Germany. Nice to know that you can find a variation of this treat around the world.
Grilling or deep-frying batter seems to be one of those universal guilty pleasures!
These look delicious and I will hunt for them at my nearest Chinatown soon. I love how they incorporated holes in the paper bag so it stays crisp. Maybe McDonald’s needs to pay some attention to this idea.
My toddler devoured these when we were in Hong Kong last spring. I had no idea what they were called. They were delicious though!
What an interesting post. It’s great to get the inside story on an unknown food item!