4 Asian Marinated Eggs You Absolutely Need To Try

Out of the many ways to consume eggs, boiling them is probably the easiest way to cook them. Delicious just on their own with some salt, boiled eggs are also great when turned into jammy egg salad or sliced and stuffed into sandwiches.

However, there are even more exciting ways to jazz up boiled eggs, and one of the ways to impart more flavor to plain boiled eggs is to marinate them. These types of preparations are especially popular in Asian countries where the eggs absorb a variety of seasonings and spices to become flavorful delicacies. A liquid base, usually soy or tea, is buoyed up with spices to create different flavor profiles and a yummy snack — or the best topper for your ramen. You can pair them with a slice of toast, over a bowl of sticky rice, or in a bowl of adobo. From Taiwanese tea eggs to Filipino adobo eggs, here are four ways you can take boiled eggs to the next level.

Let's start in Taiwan, a nation famous for soup dumplings, where you can find vendors who sell tea eggs in night markets. Often served straight from the slow cooker where they are marinating, they are a delicious quick bite to go with drinks.

To make tea eggs, you need light and dark soy sauce, black Chinese tea, and spices including (but not limited to) cinnamon, star anise, cloves, fennel seeds, and Sichuan peppercorns. If you cannot find these spices individually, you can use Chinese five-spice powder instead. Mix all the ingredients — aside from the eggs and the tea — in a pot, add water and sugar, and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat and add your tea bag to steep. As it cools, make jammy eggs by boiling them for eight minutes before transferring them immediately to an ice bath to stop cooking. Once the eggs have cooled, crack the shells all over the egg so the marinade can penetrate. Place the cracked eggs in the marinade and let them bathe in the liquid for at least 24 hours. You can keep the eggs in the marinade and store them in the fridge for up to five days.

Next, we go a bit north to Korea, a country whose cuisine, including its fried chicken (which was actually invented on the battlefield), has surged in international popularity. These marinated eggs are part of the wide array of side dishes known as banchan, which is served alongside rice with every meal. Mayak eggs translate to drug eggs, supposedly known as such because they are so addictively delicious.

To make Malak eggs, start by making soft-boiled eggs. As drug eggs are meant to have a runny yolk when cut open, boil them for only six to seven minutes before transferring them to an ice bath. As they cool, mix the marinade together. In a bowl with a lid for storage, combine water, light (regular) soy sauce, dark soy sauce, water, sugar, minced garlic, sliced green and red chili peppers, chopped scallions, and toasted sesame seeds. Once the eggs are fully cooled, carefully peel them in the ice bath. The eggs will be soft, so be careful. 

Submerge all the eggs into the marinade mixture and store them in the fridge overnight, so they'll be ready the next day for eating. Serve these eggs with some of the marinade on a bowl of hot rice for a delicious meal.

For our next destination, let's hop over to Japan where eggs are a core part of the diet, including Japanese egg sandwiches — which are better on every level. In traditional Japanese Cuisine, marinated eggs are a key topping of ramen, arguably the most famous food out of the island nation aside from sushi. Designed to be served with a runny or jammy yolk, these eggs are perfect to pair with a bowl of noodles or rice.

Like their Korean counterpart, the first step is to make a batch of soft-boiled eggs. Once boiled for six to seven minutes, plunge them straight into an ice bath. Meanwhile, mix light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and mirin (Japanese cooking sake) in a container with a lid for storage. Peel the now-cooled eggs carefully, making sure they are whole, and plop them gently into the marinade.

Place the container in the fridge, and the eggs will be ready overnight. Serve them atop a bowl of ramen, on top of rice, or as a snack on their own.

Finally, let's travel south to the Pacific nation of the Philippines — where we find eggs marinated in adobo, an essential Filipino sauce made of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and black pepper.

To make these eggs, first, prepare a batch of boiled eggs to your preferred doneness. Boiling for six minutes yields a soft-boiled egg while eight minutes produces a medium-boiled one with a jammy yolk. Once done, put them in an ice bath to stop them from cooking. Once cooled, peel them carefully to prevent splitting.

Meanwhile, in a lidded container, mix together soy sauce, vinegar, honey, black pepper, minced garlic, sliced red and green chili peppers, and water. Place the peeled boiled eggs in the container, then seal and place in the fridge overnight for the flavors to penetrate the eggs. The eggs can be used as a snack, a side dish, or the main attraction with a bowl of rice for a satisfying meal.