BUBBLE EGG CRACK

Essential to the posts were, of course, photos of extravagantly garnished egg waffle ice cream cones. In New York, I remember Chinese food blogs excitedly announcing the opening of an egg waffle shop called Eggloo in Chinatown. Since 2015, egg waffle shops have popped up in cities such as London, Melbourne, and Toronto.

Given all the social media fanfare, it is no surprise that new-generation egg waffles eventually made their landing on the other side of Earth. To capture the home cooking market, waffle franchises and food companies now sell egg waffle mixes on e-commerce platforms, vetted by mega influencers such as Austin Li and Viya in their livestreaming sessions. Stylish egg waffle franchises now occupy premium spots in high-end malls and pedestrian streets. One can never be too indulgent.Įven plain egg waffles, still popular, look more glamorous than its old Hong Kong self. Each new iteration would start a mini social media frenzy, at least locally, but at the culmination of the hype is the now-iconic egg waffle ice cream cone - a giant ice cream ball, sometimes two, sitting inside a fat waffle cone, with lashings of nutella, a copious amount of crunchies, and maybe a cookie on top. Some shops advertised mille-feuilles with egg waffle layers, or sandwiches with egg waffle bread. The bubbles on the waffle can be “molten,” filled with melted cheese, or chewy, stuffed with tapioca pearls. Matcha, chocolate, and oreo flavors are only first steps. It took no time for chefs and cafe owners to go rogue with their recipes. Egg waffle shops mushroomed across the country. Almost overnight, the humble egg waffle was transformed from a niche Hong Kong snack to a phenomenon that everyone suddenly wanted to experience. In one episode, aired to millions across China, Tse sampled egg waffles at various sellers, interviewed the owner of a 60-year-old shop, and created a spectacle cooking egg waffles with three thousand fans in scorching summer heat. The breakthrough came in 2014, when Nicolas Tse, a Hong Kong actor, featured the snack in his food show.

Occasionally, some food blog would write about a new dessert shop in Beijing or Shanghai selling “authentic Hong Kong egg waffles.” But the snack remained largely unknown in mainland China. Sometimes photos of it would sneak into my social media feed, a bubble-wrap-shaped sheet of waffle in a brown paper bag, against the background of crammed street signs iconic in Hong Kong. Egg waffles, along with milk pudding and curry fish balls and the rest of my life in Hong Kong, became an afterthought. It is milky, mildly sweet, not unlike a regular waffle but slightly airier in texture.Īfter a semester in Hong Kong, I went back to Beijing, finished college, and moved to New York. Pluck a bubble off the sheet and pop it into your mouth. When a batch is done, they peel the waffle off the mold with a spatula, loosely fold it in half, slide it into a brown paper bag, and hand it to the customer.

BUBBLE EGG CRACK

The shop owner tends a few batches at the same time, pouring batter into cast-iron molds, flipping the molds (which resemble waffle irons, but punched with round divots) every two minutes or so, and occasionally opening them a crack to check doneness. A row of stove burners occupies most of the egg waffle shop, almost always a narrow, no-seat storefront. If you’re on the hunt for an egg waffle, you’ll notice the sweet, buttery smell first.

Bubble egg