Ask a user of the social media app RedNote what the new “world-famous” Chinese dish is, they will almost without exception say Chinese steamed eggs.
This is thanks to a trend of cooking steamed eggs, which some people mistakenly call “egg custard”, among domestic and international users on the app recently.
The trend began after a RedNote Chinese cooking influencer with 100,000 followers, @qunzidefan, posted a video recipe of the dish on January 18.
She added boiled water into whisked eggs, before putting the bowl of mix on the steamer rack for 15 minutes, achieving a perfectly silky, bubble-free steamed egg.
Her video seemed to spark the curiosity and competitiveness of other users, including the millions of new international netizens that flowed to the platform due to a potential ban on the Tiktok social media platform.
The outlawing of the platform has subsequently been put on hold by US President Donald Trump.
The video by @qunzidefan had 279,000 likes and 11,000 comments.
RedNote users from Germany, Scotland and the US then rose to the challenge.
RedNote is also known as Xiaohongshu in China, which means “Little Red Book”.
The steamed eggs made by a German user named Philip, who has 480,000 followers on RedNote, was widely praised as “better than those made by locals”.
Some said the dish seemed to be simple but required delicate timing and ingredient control to achieve a perfect result.
As if the contrast was not obvious enough, some Chinese users posted their failed steamed eggs, which look like beehives and cornbread, asking “Why can you make better steamed eggs than me?”
Some Chinese people tried to maintain their reputation by posting upgraded versions of the dish, decorating the surface with flower and Christmas tree patterns made of vegetables.
Some frowned upon some international foodies’ innovation of adding sugar to the steamed eggs, as the orthodox seasoning for the dish is salt.
Source: GICexpat
