I got an order of egg drop soup from a Chinese take-out place, and it’s green. There was nothing I could detect, vegetables or otherwise, to make it green. I’ve gotten egg drop soup plenty of times from there before, so I decided it should be fine, but halfway through it I found a chunk of black egg.
I called the restaurant and they said that it was fine. The person I spoke to had poor English, so there were communication issues, but he said poor quality eggs can cause that, but it’s fine to eat.
It tasted a bit off, but that may have been my eyes telling my tongue what to taste.
I tried Googling this and had no luck. Should I throw it away?
If it doesn’t look or taste right, I’d toss it. And if they’ll openly admit that they use poor-quality eggs, I’d be suspicious of their other ingredients as well.
Besides, it’s ridiculously easy to make yourself:
[ol]
[li]All you need to do is pour one can of chicken broth into a small pot and put it over medium-high heat. [/li][li]Add a few dashes of soy sauce, a few dashes of mirin if you have it but it’s not absolutely necessary, and a few drops of sesame oil (I like chili sesame oil myself, but that’s a personal preference). [/li][li]If you have any fresh ginger, grate some and add it in, but powdered will work. [/li][li]When it gets close to boiling, lower the heat so it simmers.[/li][li]Mix up about a teaspoon of cornstarch with just enough water to make a slurry.[/li][li]Crack an egg into a bowl and scramble it up, then slowly pour it into the broth over a fork. [/li][li]Add in the cornstarch slurry and stir; the liquid will thicken up almost instantly, and then you just pour it all into a bowl and top with some thinly sliced green onion.[/li][/ol]
.
I know, right? That’s a weird thing to say. “Yeah, sometimes, when we use substandard ingredients, it’ll look funky and taste like shit, but it won’t kill you” does not seem to be the image one would try to project for their culinary business.
As for the green–overcooked egg yolks will turn green or gray. But I’ve only seen that with hardboiled eggs, and am not sure if the same will happen with eggs cracked into egg drop soup that will have been boiling for far too long in the pot. Also, I’ve had broth with a greenish tint when I’ve had a heavy hand with the parsley in it, or used a lot of green cabbage. So green-tinted stock is not necessarily a bad sign for me.