On Food and Cooking

pale, snowflake traceries. Such eggs are
known as songhuadan, or “pine-blossom”
eggs. The “blossoms” turn out to be crystals
of modified amino acids, which the high
alkalinity has broken off from from the
albumen proteins. They’re thus an index of
protein breakdown and flavor generation, a
delicate inscription of the mineral world on
the blank orb of the animal, and an example of
the unexpected delight that can lie hidden in
the crudest of preparations.