Osmanthus Scrambled Egg 桂花炒蛋

No there is not osmanthus flowers in here, so don’t be excited about using up your osmanthus in your fridge :)
It’s the looks of this egg dish that resembles osmanthus flowers, yellow, small and loose in a pile
Usually one can find this in the appetizer dish of Chinese banquets, but that is made with shark fins and crab meat… There is this Chinese saying, about a poor man will take bean vermicelli and treat that as sharkfins, 粉饰当鱼翅. So, here is my rendition of Pauper Osmanthus Scrambled Egg, with bean vermicelli and filament crab sticks :)

Just an estimation of amount, I didn’t plan to blog about this, so I didn’t weigh the ingredients in the beginning.

½ red onion, thinly sliced
½ red chilli, deseeded and cut into long strips
1 small carrot, peeled and finely julienned
1 piece of wood ears fungus, soaked to become as big as my palm, and thinly sliced
4 pcs filament crab stick, sliced lengthwise
1 cup water
Salt and pepper
Some mung bean vermicelli (soaked, about 1/3 cup, snipped much shorter)
2 sprigs spring onion, thinly sliced lengthwise
2 eggs

1. Heat wok on high heat and put in 3 Tbsp oil. Make sure wok is hot!!!!
2. Put in onions, stir for 5 seconds, then chilli for another 5 seconds.
3. Then carrots, wood ear fungus and filament crab stick. Stir fry for 15 seconds.
4. Put in water, bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper. Taste it and adjust.
5. Put in vermicelli and let it cook until 1/3 of original liquid is still visible.
6. Put in eggs and spring onions and toss everything until it dries up.

The timing of when you put in the eggs is crucial. The end product should taste moist, but look dry.