“Dany broke her fast under the persimmon tree that grew in the terrace garden… Missandei served her duck eggs and dog sausage, and half a cup of sweetened wine mixed with the juice of a lime. The honey drew flies, but a scented candle drove them off.”
-A Storm of Swords
Breakfast in Mereen
Our Thoughts:
We need a duck. To lay eggs. For us to eat. Because this was one of the most decadent breakfasts we’ve ever encountered. The yolks of these eggs stay creamy even after being hard boiled, and the texture combined with the subtle flavors imparted by its tea-immersion is just wonderful. Then you take a bite of the sausage and get an explosion of meaty, spiced nomminess.
Not feeling all that keen to search out dog sausage, let alone actually eat it, we swapped in some delicious lamb sausage instead. Lamb seems to be nearly everywhere in Westeros and Essos, so it is a reasonable substitute. We wanted the eggs to look exotic, so we used a Chinese technique for tea staining them.
The honey-sweetened wine is a variation on Ancient Roman Mulsum, and is very refreshing and very drinkable on a warm summer morning. The crispness of the drink counters the heaviness of the other elements of the meal, as does the fresh fruit.
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Looks great, I will have to try this this weekend, I can stop by the Chinese grocery for some duck eggs on my way home from work :D
Amazing! I love the look of the eggs, and now for my challenge: find duck eggs. Can I kidnap a wild duck from the state park? Would that even work? hehe
Good call on substituting the sausage….
I realize this may spark outrage among some pet lovers but for those who want to use authentic ingredients there *are* legal distributors of dog meat fit for human consumption like puppybeef.com . The way I view it, Hindus don’t tell us to stop eating cows so it’s really none of our business if other people eat dogs, cats, horses etc.
Our choice to not use things like dog and horse meat is more due to the difficulty in sourcing, or high cost of the ingredients. We were totally unaware of the distributor you mentioned, as well as the fact that the USDA even inspected dog meat. I’ll check into this company as a possible source! Thank you!
The dogs are farm-raised, slaughtered and inspected in their country of origin (like Korea), the choicest cuts are shipped abroad. I know of one man whose family has done this this for 77 generations. With regards to the USDA there is not enough demand stateside to merit modify existing laws regarding the raising of dogs as food. During hunting season domestic coyote can certainly be substituted for imported dog.
I think it is great that there are those of use who don’t judge other coultures just because there’s is different than ours, as if everyone should be like us because we are right and everybody else is wrong. Thanks for the web address!
I love the look of the eggs, and now for my challenge: find duck eggs.
This website sells duck eggs both for human consumption and, if you want, to hatch and raise. Separately, of course!
http://www.duckeggs.com/
I must say that I was a bit taken aback at the prices, though…
can’t wait to try out this sweetened wine
I tried to t-stain the eggs and the stain didn’t transfer on to the flesh of the egg (only on the membrane) Should I leave them in longer or is the stain only on the membrane? I tried peeling the shell but leaving the membrane on but that was terrible and not worth the trouble. (I ended up using them for bacon-blue-cheese deviled eggs yum!)
Sometimes the eggs are more finicky than not. We have had success soaking them overnight, or simmering them for an hour or so. Last time we actually did both!
Your deviled eggs sound like a brilliant solution, though. :)
Have you experimented to see whether the age of the eggs does anything to change their finickiness? Fresh eggs have thicker, tougher, less permeable membranes, whereas week-old eggs (assuming you buy them Grade A, maybe a little longer for farm-fresh) have thin, permeable membranes.
As an individual living in Korea for quite some time now I would refrain from eating any dog meat farmed here. I state that for all too many reasons to list. My main concern is quite questionable farm standards. There have been some farm animal problems here in the past year for obvious reasons. Enough said.
I realize this post is over half a year old but I just discovered this amazing blog and had a question. If I want to let the eggs soak in the tea overnight, do I leave the eggs (in the tea) out at room temp or should they go in the fridge?
I’d stick them in the fridge, just to be on the safe side. They will keep for several breakfasts’ worth that way! :)
I would say fridge too, just to prevent salmonella, or any other bacteria growth