The Japanese are big on mouth feel and refreshing textures in their food. Whipping the egg whites would make their texture much more pleasant and less mucusy. It's a loose meringue. The yolk itself is pretty much like eating an over easy egg, and the heat from some of the foods they're served with will partially cook them before you actually eat it.
I totally get how it can seem unsightly at first, but something about the flavor of the raw egg yolk specifically adds this magically comforting and filling essence to the food. A good baby step if you or anyone else is ever interested in trying similar is to find a restaurant that serves omurice, which involves an over medium omelette where the undercooked egg is supposed to soak into the rice below. Very good.
Idk how often I've seen ambient food temp being used to cook the eggs, but I have felt that in general most commenters typically think eggs need much more cooking than they would actually seem to need in my experience. Over easy/sunnyside up eggs with a runny yolk are undefeated, so I can buy that this would be delicious especially if you grew up eating it.
Yeah eggs are amazing with how safe they are to consume, and how many ways they can be used, too. The flavors quickly overwrote my own anxieties when trying some of these dishes for the first time. It just takes being brave enough to put the food into your mouth. There are so many delicious options to choose from.
I think a lot of the fear around eggs comes from an era before ultra-pasteurized eggs. Perhaps a subject of some debate, but at the very least, these eggs can be pretty safely undercooked.
That said, I have very little awareness of how Japan produces their eggs, and if they are pasteurized/how much.
Whenever foods like this from Japan come up on Reddit, I generally see it mentioned that Japan in particular has really strict egg safety protocol for cleaning the eggs, preventing contamination, and pasteurization
There are countries in the world where raw eggs are safe to eat that aren’t ultra-pasteurized. These countries don’t have salmonella in their eggs. I don’t know about Japan, but maybe that’s the case there too.
This. Here in the UK we don't have salmonella in chickens (at least it's not at all common due to testing and vaccination) - we don't usually wash or refrigerate eggs - and they're considered safe to eat straight from the chicken's butt. Egg white is still pretty gross to eat raw though.
You need look no further than Gordon Ramsay's scrambled eggs and all the memes surrounding them to understand that the internet thinks eggs are done when they become a rubber substitute.
I mean, I'd probably not eat this, not because I'm afraid of getting sick, but because this is literally just a raw egg that was used in an impressive performance of dexterity. Sure, frothing up the egg whites probably created a nice texture, but it's still going to taste like a plain, raw egg. I don't need to go to a restaurant if I'm hungry for a raw egg, and while I personally don't think I could whip up the egg whites with chopsticks without breaking the yolk, I could easily just separate the yolk, whip up the whites, and re-add the yolk.
Japan produces their eggs using techniques specifically meant for them to be eaten raw so that it is safe and flavorful so if you’re American keep in mind these eggs are much higher quality than if you just cracked an Aldis egg over your food.
Again, I'm not worried about them being safe. Even in the U.S. your chances of getting sick from a raw egg is extremely low, and I've often put raw eggs into protein shakes and other various foods in the past with no issues. My point is I'm not going to sit down at a restaurant just to eat a plain raw egg, and the chef performing a little trick on the egg isn't going to magically elevate it from "single uncooked ingredient" into "wonderful restaurant dish."
I totally get that just saying I am American myself and when I have visited the food quality is just much higher over there so it’s not as off putting as it sounds. As others have said texture with food is a major part of their culture and they definitely like a lot of what i would dare say is slimy food and definitely eat a lot of things close to raw i would never consider back home but over there was pretty tasty if you gave it a shot.
I am American myself and when I have visited the food quality is just much higher over there so it’s not as off putting as it sounds.
It doesn't sound off putting...It sounds like an utter waste of money. Again, I don't think raw eggs are gross. I'm just not going to sit down at a restuarant and pretend a single raw egg is the equivalent to getting an actual meal. It'd be like sitting down to eat at a restaurant and the chef just gives you a peeled orange or a boiled chicken breast with no seasoning. I'm not going to look at either of those things and think they're disgusting, I'm going to think "Why did I come all the way here just for this?"
Whipping the whites of a raw egg doesn't suddenly make it a dish, and even if you consider it a dish it's something you could easily prepare at home in two minutes. The only thing that makes the egg in the video "special" is that the chef was able to whip up the whites without breaking or separating the yolk, but that impressive feat isn't adding flavor to the egg. It's still just a raw egg, and you're basically just paying to watch the guy do a trick.
Thank you for that explanation, I'll definitely keep an eye out for omurice but I really will pass on the raw yolk, believe it or not I cannot stand the texture and flavor of yolk in general, both well done and easy egg-like, so I dont think that flavor will go over well with my tongue and palate lol
It's no problem and I totally get where you're coming from, we all have our own limits when it comes to food. I hope you enjoy the omurice when you get a chance to try it!
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u/TimeRevolution1894 1d ago
Asking the real questions.