Background
Tea egg is a Chinese savory food commonly sold as a snack, in which a boiled egg is cracked slightly and then boiled again in tea, and sauce or spices. It is also known as marble egg because cracks in the egg shell create darkened lines with marble-like patterns. Commonly sold by street vendors or in night markets in most Chinese communities throughout the world, it is also served in Asian restaurants. Although it originated from China and is traditionally associated with Chinese cuisine, other similar recipes and variations have been developed throughout Asia. Tea eggs originated in Zhejiang province as a way to preserve food for a long time but are now found in all provinces.
Tea egg was never on my food list until recently. In my younger age, egg as snack sounded boring. But early this year I found out a video about tea egg making and wanted to try. It is not as difficult as I thought. And I am proud of all the patterns I can make. Besides, I can finally use the tea bricks from years ago. Below are some photos from my tea egg experiment.
Digital concept
So I thought I can paint some tea eggs as a little warm up practice. I draw one/two/three tea eggs on smaller 8″×10″ canvas panel. The marble lines are fun to paint. The brown one indicates the egg with shell as a contrast.
Recipe
I use the recipe/method as described in this video. It is straightforward. If you are not sure about cracking the raw egg, you can simply boil them first then crack them gentely. Black tea is recommended. But for the coloring part you can be creative. I saw a blog about making blue tea eggs with some natural flower as dye.
Generally all you need is egg, tea leaves, sugar, salt and star anise.
Try it if you are interested! It is a fun process I would say and really beautiful marble patterns. I eat them as part of breakfast or with lunch, not as snack still. 🤣