Egg foo young facts for kids
Pork egg foo young with brown gravy
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| Alternative names | Egg fooyung, egg foo yong, egg foo yung, or egg fu yung |
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| Type | Meal |
| Place of origin | China and Southeast Asia |
| Region or state | Guangdong |
| Serving temperature | Hot |
| Main ingredients | Eggs, meat, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, cabbage, spring onions, mushrooms, and water chestnuts |
| Variations | roast pork, shrimp, chicken, beef, or lobster |
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| Chinese | 芙蓉蛋 | ||||||||||
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Egg foo young (Chinese: 芙蓉蛋; Mandarin Pinyin: fúróngdàn; Jyutping: fu4 'jung4 daan6*2, also spelled egg fooyung, egg foo yong, egg foo yung, or egg fu yung) is a tasty omelette dish. You can find it in Chinese Indonesian, British Chinese, and Chinese American restaurants.
The name "Egg foo young" comes from the Cantonese language, which is spoken in parts of China. This dish is inspired by an old Chinese recipe from Guangdong province.
How Egg Foo Young is Made
The name "Egg foo young" actually means "Hibiscus egg." This dish is made with beaten eggs, just like when you make scrambled eggs. Then, different vegetables are mixed in. These often include crunchy bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, sliced cabbage, fresh spring onions, mushrooms, and water chestnuts.
Sometimes, meat is added too! You might find it with delicious roast pork, shrimp, chicken, beef, or even lobster.
Egg Foo Young Around the World
In Indonesia, this dish is called fu yung hai. The omelette is usually made with a mix of vegetables like carrots, bean sprouts, and cabbages. It often has meats like crab meat, shrimp, or minced chicken. This Indonesian version is usually served with a sweet and sour sauce that has peas in it.
In Western countries, like the United States, egg foo young often looks like a folded omelette. The vegetables and meat are mixed right into the egg. In America, it might be covered in a special sauce or gravy. Chinese chefs in the U.S. started making this pancake-like dish with eggs, veggies, and meat or seafood as early as the 1930s.
There's a special version in St. Louis, Missouri, called a St. Paul sandwich. This is an egg foo young patty served with mayonnaise, dill pickles, and sometimes lettuce and tomato between two slices of white bread.
In the Netherlands, which has its own style of Chinese Indonesian food, it's known as Foe yong hai. It's usually served with a sweet tomato sauce. Even though hai in the name means "crab," it's often served without crab meat.
Similar Dishes
Egg foo young is a popular dish, and other countries have similar ones!
- The Vietnamese dish chả trứng hấp is quite similar to egg foo young.
- In Japan, there's a dish called kani-tama (かに玉 or 蟹玉). It's similar but often uses crab meat instead of ham or other meats. If you put kani-tama on plain rice with a thick, savory sauce, it's called ‘’Tenshin-han’’ (天津飯). This name means ‘’Tianjin rice’’, but it's not a dish found in the actual Chinese city of Tianjin.
- Some versions of the Korean-Chinese dish jjajang bokkeumbap (짜장 볶음밥) are also similar. This dish is usually fried rice with jjajang (a dark bean and meat sauce). Sometimes, it has a fried egg or an egg-foo-young-like omelet on top of the rice.
- In Malaysia, there's a dish called telur bungkus, which means "wrapped egg." The egg usually wraps around chicken or beef, onions, mushrooms, vegetables, and gravy.
- In Chinese Thai cuisine, this dish is called Khai Chiao Yat Sai. This means "stuffed fried egg." The common recipe uses minced pork and shredded spring onions.
See also
In Spanish: Huevos fu yung para niños
