Eggette

Eggette
A Hong Kong street snack stand selling eggettes and other Hong Kong style snacks
Traditional Chinese	雞蛋仔
Simplified Chinese	鸡蛋仔
Cantonese Jyutping	Gai1 daan2 zai2
Literal meaning	Chicken egg + [diminutive suffix]
Transliterations Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Jī dàn zǎi Cantonese - Jyutping Gai1 daan2 zai2 - Yale Romanization Gāi dáan jái

An eggette is a kind of spherical pancake or ball waffle popular in the Cantonese-speaking regions of China, including Hong Kong and Macau. The food item is also referred to as an egg puff or by its Cantonese name, gai daan jai^[1], and is made from egg, sugar, flour, and light evaporated milk.^[2] They are best served hot, and often eaten plain. They can also be served with fruit and flavors such as strawberry, coconut or chocolate.^[2]

Eggettes are one of the most popular Hong Kong "street snacks" and was ranked No.3 in the 50 most popular HK "street snack".^[3] They have been a favoured street snack in HK since their emergence in 1950s and were made with coal fire heating, sold from street kiosks in Hong Kong in the early days.^[1][4]

They are made from a sweet batter that is cooked on a hot griddle, a special frying pan with small round "wells" (resembling a Æbleskiver but with smaller and more of the round "wells") and with them set on hot coals in the fire or more commonly, on an electrical heat generator. The egg batter is poured over the special frying pan and heated; the small ovals of eggettes are thus formed. They exist in several variations of favours apart from the conventional "egg taste", e.g. chocolate, green-tea and ginger favour, etc. Most pancakes are quick breads, although some are also made using a yeast-raised or fermented batter. Eggettes can be eaten at different times of the day depending on local tradition.

References

See also

• Aebleskiver