Urine-soaked 'virgin boy eggs' are a springtime taste treat in China

[Snake Alchemist]

DONGYANG, China - Officials in China have listed a local food delicacy of eggs soaked in boys' urine as part of the region's intangible cultural heritage.

Every spring, street vendors in the city of Dongyang sell 'virgin boy eggs' as a unique snack.
Basins and buckets of boys' urine are collected from primary school toilets. Eggs are then soaked and cooked in the urine.

There is no good explanation for why it has to be boys' urine, just that it has been so for centuries.

The scent of these eggs being cooked in pots of urine is unmistakable as people pass the many street vendors in Dongyang who sell it, claiming it has remarkable health properties.

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/29/10922289-urine-soaked-virgin-boy-eggs-are-a-springtime-taste-treat-in-china

[Zalatix]

1. All I've got to say about this is

[Snake Alchemist]

2. How do you win against a country willing to eat this? nt

[sarcasmo]

40. +1

[GodlessBiker]

3. Kinky.

[Ian David]

4. Post this in the health forum. Let's see how many of the woo-woos we can get to eat them. n/t

[arcane1]

8. Haha!

[whatchamacallit]

27. Who or what are "the woo-woos"?

[Ian David]

28. Woo-Woo...

woo-woo

Woo-woo (or just plain woo) refers to ideas considered irrational or based on extremely flimsy evidence or that appeal to mysterious occult forces or powers.

Here's a dictionary definition of woo-woo:

adj. concerned with emotions, mysticism, or spiritualism; other than rational or scientific; mysterious; new agey. Also n., a person who has mystical or new age beliefs.

When used by skeptics, woo-woo is a derogatory and dismissive term used to refer to beliefs one considers nonsense or to a person who holds such beliefs.

Sometimes woo-woo is used by skeptics as a synonym for pseudoscience, true-believer, or quackery. But mostly the term is used for its emotive content and is an emotive synonym for such terms as nonsense, irrational, nutter, nut, or crazy.

More:
http://www.skepdic.com/woowoo.html

[whatchamacallit]

29. So, people who may believe something that you don't

Yes by all means they deserve to eat piss soaked eggs.

[ZombieHorde]

31. They deserve to eat them if they choose to eat them, in my opinion. nt

[Ian David]

33. No, just people who believe stupid shit. n/t

[drm604]

5. I have to wonder if this article is an April Fools joke.

They collect it from the boy's rooms of local schools? Seriously?

[Ian David]

10. If it's a joke, then it's a racist one. n/t

[drm604]

11. Correct

[Ian David]

12. Article was posted four days ago, which is BEFORE April 1st.

And according to Wikipedia, Dongyang is a real place, and not a funny name that sounds like a penis joke.

Traditions

A famous local tradition in Dongyang is the virgin boy egg (Tong Zi Dan 童子尿煮雞蛋[1]), an annual tradition in early spring time where the urine of prepubertal school boys preferably under 10 years is collected and boiled with eggs and then sold (for 1.50 yuan) and eaten, it is said "it tastes like spring".[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongyang#Traditions




Here's an article from March 11, 2011:

tong zi dan
Boys’ urine-soaked eggs listed as local specialty, intangible cultural heritage



http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2011/03/boy-urine-soaked-eggs-listed-as-local-specialty-intangible-cultural-heritage/

[Politicalboi]

6. I would NEVER eat a hard boiled egg

Boiled in piss. These people sure have some crazy traditions. As long as they don't involve torturing of animals, which some of their stuff does, I could care less if they make Fecal Dragons.

[-..__...]

18. When I was in high school...

it was a fad amongst the more mischievous boys to piss on the old steam radiators in the classrooms
(receiving a first degree burn to ones pecker head was a very real possibility).

The resulting stench was stomach churning.

I can't begin to imagine what the aroma of this delicacy must smell like...

[aquart]

7. I do wonder how this tradition got started.

If the urine is a substitute for semen and this is a fertility ritual associated with spring rites. We soak our eggs in colored dyes.

[enlightenment]

24. Seems like it would work as a form of pickling.

Urine has long been used as a fixative for various natural dyes for cloth - perhaps that led to some experimentation? Maybe young boys because they probably aren't ingesting alcohol or smoking (maybe it smells better than adult urine . . . and no, I don't want to do a smell test !) ?

Odd custom - but really not much more so than the 'thousand year' egg or kimchi. both of which come down to burying food, letting it rot, and then eating it.

Not my cuppa, certainly.

[aquart]

38. Urine is a sterile substance. Drinkable if desperate.

And humans have traditionally extracted the ammonia for cleaning purposes.

But an egg and the emission of a young penis? Sounds ritual to me.

[enlightenment]

39. Whatever the reason,

they don't need to worry about me taking more than my share. Actually, they're welcome to take my share.

[XemaSab]

43. It does sound ritual

Especially egg + springtime + young penis.

Easter eggs and teh maypole, anyone?

[-..__...]

9. And people in this country are in an uproar over "Pink Slime".

[Uncle Joe]

17. Perhaps our "Pink Slime" would be better if we first boiled it in boys' urine?

Last edited Mon Apr 2, 2012, 03:01 PM - Edit history (1)

[Snake Alchemist]

19. Who needs pink slime? This process would raise the PH just fine. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. ugh

[MineralMan]

14. More information than I needed on Chinese cuisine.

Truly.

[Marrah_G]

15. omg that is just nasty

ewwwwwwwww

[KamaAina]

16. I don't like eggs

thank goodness.

[Odin2005]

20. The Chinese consider our dairy products just as disgusting as we find this.

It's all cultural upbringing.

[Snake Alchemist]

21. This borders on fetish though. nt

[Cirque du So-What]

30. Especially bleu cheese

They believe - as do other Asian cultures - that eating anything riddled with blue mold is surely poisonous.

[Odin2005]

41. Exactly. We get after other cultures for bizzarre food...

...and then crumble moldy cheese on our salads!

[Evasporque]

22. To end this nightmare the state should promote a asparagas week in primary schools....

right before the festival......

[Duer 157099]

23. I wonder if there is some scientific basis

I also wonder how such a thing got started. Some kid pissed in the pot of boiling eggs a few thousand years ago and voila?

Maybe young boy urine has a unique molecule that would otherwise be affected by hormones and when this protein or peptide or small molecule comes in contact with egg albumin, it binds and forms a unique structure that, when ingested, stimulates the immune system or something. I can see something like this being the case. All sorts of possibilities, as well as it being completely psychological.

[Snake Alchemist]

25. Virgin sacrifices have also proven to be very effective.

I often wonder the science behind that.

[Cleita]

26. When I was growing up and my parents traveled through third world countries, I had to

eat a lot of strange things or starve that I won't eat today, but this I don't think I would do.

[polly7]

32. Oh gag. nt.

[originalpckelly]

34. The Romans used to collect urine to brighten their togas.

Leather is still processed in this world by letting it soak in vast pots of urine.

What, you didn't know that?

However truthful this is, that other stuff I said is actually real!

[ZombieHorde]

35. Awesome. nt

[msongs]

36. after a hard day's work at the Apple factory, the perfect pick me up lol nt

[Snake Alchemist]

37. When will the patented iEgg be in Apple stores? nt

[XemaSab]

42. Wouldn't that be a pEgg?