Pampagana

Whenever I worry that a meal I am about to serve needs more zing, I reach for salted egg. It has yet to fail me, except for that one time I served it in a dish instead of on the side.

But first, can you tell if the salted egg above is duck’s or chicken’s? If I have to guess, duck’s, because of the deeper color of the yolk. But I’m not sure if the curing process does that to chicken egg as well, so there. According to online sources, the most discernible difference is in size: duck egg is larger. I have never seen fresh (or at least uncured) duck egg before. Also, I had until lately been under the impression salted eggs were exclusively duck’s. In that case, what else difference did I need besides the purple dye job? (In the Philippines, at least; I also learn that salted eggs are not always dyed a different color elsewhere.)

Anyway, you can see for yourself why I ask. If anything, the chicken egg at left is slightly larger than that purple egg, which I hesitate to call duck’s. And if you’re wondering what the tiny thing is at left, it’s a Crestor tablet — you know, just in case you forget that duck egg has twice the cholesterol of chicken’s.

As for salt, well, that’s how salted egg got its name.

Egg is salt-cured either by brining or packing it in salted charcoal/clay. The process takes from 18 to 30 days — the longer, the saltier; the saltier, the longer the egg keeps. To make salted egg salad, mix coarsely chopped egg — we use it straight out of the shell, but if worried about microbes all that salt may not have killed or kept out, feel free to boil or steam egg — green tomatoes, red onion, and cucumber (chili optional). To temper the saltiness of the egg, a drizzle of vinegar (try the salad before you do it, though, then you will better appreciate the difference the vinegar makes afterward). If this salad doesn’t motivate your taste buds, I don’t know what else will.