Authentic Egg Foo Young Recipe (HK Style Omelet)
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Author:
Souped Up Recipes
Servings
1
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
5 minutes
Egg foo young is an HK-style omelet. It is the transliteration of the Cantonese pronunciation (芙蓉蛋). This is a classic item you can order in Cha Chaan Teng (茶餐厅), a type of Hong Kong-style café restaurant. It’s super easy and will take you less than 10 minutes to make.
Ingredients
- 2 oz of shrimp, butterflied
- 1 oz of bean sprouts
- 1 tsp of oil to saute the shrimp and bean sprouts
- 2 tsp of cornstarch
- 1 tbsp of water
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- White pepper to taste
- 2 eggs
- 1 oz of char siu, julienned
- 2 pieces of garlic chive, cut into 1 inch long
- A few tbsp of oil to pan fry the omelet
- 1.5 tbsp of sweet soy sauce to serve on the side
- Cilantro as garnish
Directions
- Heat the wok until smoking hot. Add oil and shrimp and stir for 15 seconds.
- Add the bean sprout and continue to stir for another 15 seconds to remove the beany taste. Take the shrimp and bean sprouts out of the wok and let them cool.
- Add the cornstarch, water, salt, and white pepper to a bowl. Crack in 2 eggs and beat them well until you don’t see any obvious egg white.
- Add the pre-cooked shrimp, bean sprouts, garlic chives, and the char siu into the beaten egg. Mix thoroughly. You can also use mushroom slices, julienned cabbage, or carrot instead.
- Heat the wok again until smoking hot. Add a few tbsp of oil. Swirl it around to cover the bottom. Switch the heat to medium and pour in the egg mixture. Let it fry on one side for a couple of minutes or until the bottom is golden brown. Flip it to fry the other side. Chinese people love our eggs to be crispy and toasty. This is the biggest difference compared to the Western omelet. If you like yours to be soft and tender, you can fry it over low heat and don’t make it crispy.
- Serve it over white rice and a small dip of sweet soy sauce. Top with some cilantro as garnish.
Recipe Note
- Garlic Chives (韭菜): Locals normally use yellow chives (韭黄), which are the same plant but grown without sun to suppress synthetic chlorophyll. Yellow chives taste sweeter and milder, which is friendly to people who don’t like the smell of garlic chives. However, it is not easy to find yellow chives in the USA so I’m using the green ones. If you don’t have green garlic chives, use spring onion or cilantro.
- Char Siu (叉烧): also known as Chinese BBQ pork and it is so popular in HK that you can buy them on any street. People like to use it as an ingredient to make all kinds of recipes, such as char siu fried rice, char siu chow mein, and char siu noodle soup... If you are not living in HK, you canclick hereto learn how to make it yourself. If you don’t have char siu, you can use your favorite leftover BBQ meat.
- Sweet Soy Sauce (甜酱油): You can make a replacement by dissolving 1/2 tsp of brown sugar with 1.5 tbsp of regular soy sauce.
