Two fried eggs, the café way

Ingredientsserves 1

Method

1. Heat a non-stick pan on high until it is properly hot, then add two tablespoons of oil. Too little oil and there is no crisp edge.
2. Crack both eggs in side by side and do not move them; let the whites set and the edges start to brown.
3. At seven parts done, tilt the pan and spoon the hot oil over the whites so they cook through while the yolk stays soft. This is 太陽蛋, sunny side up.
4. For 反蛋, flip once and cook twenty seconds more. For 熟蛋, flip and press gently until the yolk sets. 生熟蛋 sits between the two. Unless told otherwise the café sends 太陽蛋, so say which you take when you order.
5. Slide on to the plate beside the toast; salt, pepper, a few drops of soy or a little ketchup are added at the table.
6. The low-oil, low-smoke method: once the eggs are in, flick a few drops of water on the inside of a lid and cover at once, so the steam sets the white and the yolk stays soft.

Take care

• Contains egg, served with a runny yolk by default; cook the yolk through for young children, the elderly and in pregnancy, which at the café is the order 熟蛋. Soy sauce contains soy and wheat.

The story

西煎雙蛋, 'two Western-fried eggs', is the egg on the A餐 and the source of Hong Kong's most pedantic café vocabulary: 太陽蛋 for sunny side up, 反蛋 for over easy, 熟蛋 for well done, then 生熟蛋 and 燶邊蛋, and a waiter who will remember which you take. TOPick recorded how a single egg could start an argument across a whole 茶記; the Cantonese home 荷包蛋, folded over its yolk in a wok, is a different thing and belongs to the dinner table, not the set breakfast.

Same counter

Hong Kong French toastCondensed-milk and butter toastPineapple bun with butter

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.