Eggs are the Best

On busy days, lunch can be as simple as tossing leftover rice with fluffy eggs. Just remember to cook your eggs first, rice second—throwing them together can result in mushy clumps of rice. You want each grain to be distinct and individually coated with a light slick of oil, not egg.

Serve this rice as a sidekick to your main dishes, or enjoy it solo as a cheap 10-minute meal. If you have leftover meat and vegetables in the fridge, this is the best way to use them up.

Scrambled Egg Fried Rice

Mayak eggs, or Mayak gyeran (마약계란), means 

 in Korean. The name pertains to the tasty, addictive flavor of these jammy eggs, steeped overnight in a sweet soy marinade until they take on a brown color. Serve them over hot steamed rice for a humble but filling weekday lunch, or slice them in half and use like ramen eggs in your instant noodles.

Eggs

Soy Marinade

For Serving

Korean Soy-Marinated Eggs (Mayak Eggs)

Long before Italians knew what a tomato was, Roman shepherds made cacio e pepe, meaning "cheese and pepper", with aged Pecorino, black pepper, and dried pasta from their sacks. The dish eventually made its way to restaurants and households as one of the simplest Italian pastas you can make—no skillet sauce required.

Here, we brought the flavors of the Roman pasta dish to an even simpler medium: scrambled eggs.

No need to fuss over tradition and use Pecorino Romano; save it for your pasta. Parmesan cheese works just as well in this recipe. (If you have Parmigiano Reggiano, even better.)

Cacio e Pepe Scrambled Eggs

Like the Italian pasta, these scrambled eggs get their flavor from heaps of cheese and black pepper.

Korean steamed eggs (gyeran-jjim) lie halfway between an eggy soup and a silky custard. Like Japanese chawan mushi and Chinese zheng shui dan, it’s extremely cheap and dead simple to make. Once you master the recipe, customize it however you want: replace the water with stock, add chili flakes, or adjust the egg-water ratio. Enjoy as an appetizer or as a simple meal, served with hot rice.

A traditional ttukbaegi makes this dish a one-pot affair you can cook in and eat straight out of. Rinse and repeat for round two, if you’re hungry.

Ingredients

Korean Steamed Eggs (Gyeran-jjim)

This traditional Korean steamed egg dish is a worthy addition to your arsenal of simple egg recipes.

Shakshuka is a hearty Middle Eastern and North African breakfast of eggs poached in a tomato and bell pepper sauce. Traditionally, it's served straight from the skillet with pita bread.

This recipe adds rice (how Asian of us!), which soaks up the shakshuka sauce. Cooking it low and slow makes sure that every bit of rice is perfectly cooked and coated in the sauce. It's a crispy bottom away from becoming a vegetarian paella. Add color and flavor with crumbled feta, chili flakes, and fresh greens like spinach or cilantro.

Shakshuka Skillet Rice with Feta Cheese

Eggs on rice is a dead-simple equation for an effortless but rewarding meal. Here we toss hard-boiled eggs in a hot, fiery-red sauce. Thanks to gochujang, or Korean fermented chili paste, the eggs acquire a deep, fermented flavor with a sweet-spicy sting. Minced green onions and sesame seeds give it color. These eggs are substantial enough to serve over rice or noodles, but will play well with meat and vegetables, too.

Sweet-Spicy Sauce

Sweet-Spicy Korean Braised Eggs

Turn hard-boiled eggs into a comforting meal by braising them in a sweet-spicy Korean sauce. The secret ingredient: gochujang.

This quick and simple fried rice gets its flavor from salted egg (itlog na maalat). Feel free to adapt this recipe with whatever you have on hand—fried rice is excellent for using up leftovers. Replace the pork with your favorite protein (we recommend shrimp), or throw in any extra vegetables lurking in your fridge.

Salted Egg Fried Rice with Pork or Shrimp

This fried rice recipe gets its flavor from salted egg (itlog na maalat). Toss in some pork and vegetables for an easy weeknight meal.

 is the ultimate crispy omelet, with crunchy edges teasing to soft cloudy eggs that get a kick of umami from fish sauce instead of salt. To nail it, you'll need frothy beaten eggs, a wok or deep non-stick pan, and 

oil. You can get some insurance by adding cornstarch or rice flour to help it crisp up, but this is optional in this recipe. Top your Thai-style omelet on plain rice or serve it alongside anything with a sour or spicy kick to take the edge off.

Thai-Style Crispy Omelet (Khai Jiao)

This Thai-style omelet (khai jiao) is an easy recipe to get crispy, savory eggs to pair with hot rice.

Thick, savory breakfast toasts are a huge staple in Asian countries like South Korea and Japan. This savory egg & cream French toast recipe is a cross between those dishes and the French croque monsieur. It comes together easily; all you need is soft bread, brioche or your preferred type, and a few ingredients such as cheese, eggs, and butter.

What makes this toast richer is the addition of 

. While french toasts are usually just dipped in milk or butter, the extra step of soaking the bread with cream and spices ensures that each slice has a velvety texture, and is steeped in the flavor of the savory marinade.

Savory Egg & Cream French Toast

Make this creamy and savory French toast recipe, a cross between French Croque monsieur and Japanese and Korean honey toast.

Chinese New Year is a tradition long celebrated in the Philippines. Most Chinese restaurants are probably going to be fully booked next weekend, and visits to Binondo seem hectic (to understate it) or simply unrealistic. So we opted to hack a Binondo favorite and save you the trip: Sincerity's Oyster Omelet.

The key to getting that sticky, gooey consistency that makes this oyster omelet so special is the use of rice flour. But if you can't get your hands on it, equal parts flour and tapioca starch can also recreate the same kind of chew.

Omelette

Filling

Sincerity-Style Oyster Omelet

A perfect dish to feast on for CNY is Sincerity's Oyster Omelet. We've recreated it so you won't have to brave the long lines in Binondo.

Son-in-law eggs have nothing else to do with sons-in-law. Instead, it's regarded as Thai comfort food, a childhood favorite of many locals. It's a go-to recipe for moms because it's easy to make but packed with a lot of flavor and nutrients.

) is a Thai dish made with deep-fried hard-boiled eggs, smothered in a sweet-and-sour sauce. The eggs are fried until golden brown, giving them a slightly crunchy texture; this balances the still soft and creamy interior. Meanwhile, the sauce is traditionally made with palm sugar, tamarind, fish sauce, and chilies. It's sweet, sour, and spicy, with a bit of caramel-y undertones. 

Fried Eggs

Sauce

Toppings

Thai Son-in-Law Eggs

Son-in-law eggs (kai loog kuey) are a simple Thai comfort food—deep-fried hard-boiled eggs smothered in a thick sweet-and-sour sauce.