Sanbuzhan Stir-Fried Egg Yolk 炒三不沾

Sanbuzhan Stir-Fried Egg Yolk (炒三不沾) is a sweet dish from Anyang (安阳) in northern Henan, made by working egg yolk and sugar in hot oil until the yolk has soaked up the oil. The name means "three non-sticks": it does not stick to the chopsticks, the bowl or the mouth.

How it is made

Egg yolk and white sugar are stirred together and poured into a pan of very hot oil, then stirred and turned with a spatula until the yolk has absorbed all the oil. The history museum of Academia Sinica's Institute of History and Philology (中央研究院歷史語言研究所) calls it a dish of pure technique: the cook cannot leave the pan for a second, because if the stirring slows it sticks to the pan and changes colour, and the cook taps and knocks with the ladle three or four hundred times. Only the yolks go in, and the museum notes that the cook it profiles always stir-fried the leftover whites as a second dish, chao jirong (炒雞絨), stir-fried egg white.

Flavour and texture

The finished dish is golden, sweet and smells of egg, and it leaves the plate, the chopsticks and the mouth clean. In the legend Anyang Radio and Television tells, the Qianlong Emperor found it smooth and soft-sticky without clinging to the teeth. Because it holds so much oil it keeps its heat, and the museum warns that a careless mouthful can blister the mouth.

Where it comes from

The story told in Anyang places its origin in the Qianlong era, when a filial Anyang official had it made from egg yolk and lard for his aged father, who could no longer manage meat. When Qianlong passed through Anyang on a southern tour, the official's cook served it to him, and from there it reached Beijing. A local culture enthusiast quoted by the station links it to a line of verse, "a bright moon rises on the plate, osmanthus scents the eighth month". The museum's account adds a twentieth-century chapter: the archaeologist Shi Zhangru (石璋如) remembered Wang Fengxiang (王鳳祥), cook to the Yinxu (殷墟) excavation team from its eighth season in 1933, and sanbuzhan was the dish Wang cooked best.