Name: Hou Bao Daan: Hong Kong-Style Fried Eggs Recipe
Total time: 5 min
Yield: Serves 1
Cuisine: CHINESE
Ingredients: 1 large egg; Vegetable oil; Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce; 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil; 1/4 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar (optional)

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By Genevieve Ko

April 6, 2020

This Hong Kong classic is usually made with over-easy eggs; hou bao means purse, which is what the white encasing the yolk resembles. It’s even better with fried eggs, when the sauces slide over the bubbles and into the craters on top. Serve over steamed rice for an instant dinner.

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1 large egg

Vegetable oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon soy sauce

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

¼ teaspoon Chinese black vinegar (optional)

Heat a small, well-seasoned wok, cast iron or carbon-steel skillet or nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Crack the egg into a small bowl. Add enough oil to the hot pan to coat the bottom. When it starts to smoke, slide in the egg. Season with salt and pepper, then swirl the pan so that the hot oil runs over the egg to cook the white.

As soon as the edges are browned and crackly and the white is set, transfer the egg to a serving plate. Immediately sprinkle with the soy sauce, sesame oil and vinegar if using. Eat immediately, mixing the sauces with the runny yolk with each bite.

Variations:

For an even more fried fried egg, you can try it Spanish-style, where it’s known as huevos con puntilla. Puntilla means lacy edges, and you get that by filling the pan with olive oil to a depth of ½ inch. When it smokes, slide the egg in, sprinkle with salt and immediately start spooning the hot oil from the edges of the pan over the egg, which will cause the edges and top to bubble into a lacy golden crackle. Scoop it out as soon as the white sets. You can do the same in a wok.
However you eat it — with toast, potatoes, rice, hot sauce — eat it hot, swiping crunchy-edge whites in silky yolk. And if you want another, you can have it all again in a minute.

Genevieve Ko

Genevieve Ko is the former cooking editor for the Los Angeles Times. She is a cookbook author and has been a food writer, editor and recipe developer for national food media outlets. Ko graduated from Yale after a childhood in Monterey Park.