Chinese delicacy — eggs boiled in the urine of virgins

With the arrival of spring, the Chinese town of Dongyang in Zhejiang province is enveloped by a strange, but familiar smell to every local resident — the smell of urine. This is prepared by a popular local delicacy — Tunzidan, which means "boy's egg".

But it would seem, what does urine and boys have to do with it? The answer is simple: Tongzidan is chicken eggs boiled in urine, while urine must necessarily belong to a virgin boy, and it is necessary to cook eggs in it all day. But, as local gourmets assure, the eggs turn out very tasty and leave the trays like hot cakes at a price of one and a half yuan apiece.

To prepare the delicacy of Tongzidan, the urine of boys up to ten years old is collected in schools, exposing special containers for this. In the photo: a boy urinates in a basin with urine in the school toilet. (Reuters / Aly Song)

During the day, all the urine is drained into a large container and used to prepare a delicacy. This practice is common in all schools of the city. (Reuters / Aly Song)

To prepare a dish, it is advisable to use the urine of boys who are not more than ten years old. There is no exact explanation for what the boys' urine is needed for. Usually teachers remind boys not to pee in buckets if they are sick. (Reuters / Aly Song)

In the photo: the seller pours a vat of urine into a cauldron with eggs for cooking. "Eggs cooked in urine are very fragrant," says 51—year-old Ge Yaohua, one of the most famous egg sellers in Dongyang. Our family eats them every week. In Dunyan, every family loves to eat them," he says. (Reuters / Aly Song)

Cooking eggs takes all day. First, they must be pre-soaked, after which the eggs are boiled in urine. After some time, the shell of hard-boiled eggs begins to burst. Urine penetrates through the cracks. At this stage, they are left to cook for a while longer, so that everything is thoroughly soaked and absorbed the aroma. Only after an hour or two, as the eggs are covered with cracks, we can assume that they are almost ready. In the photo: a girl watches the cooking of eggs. (Reuters / Aly Song)

The tradition of boiling eggs in boys' urine has been going on for hundreds of years. Locals claim that eggs cooked in this way have miraculous properties for the human body. In the photo: a woman buys eggs boiled in urine. (Reuters / Aly Song)

Eggs are sold at 1.5 yuan apiece ($0.24), i.e. they cost twice as much as ordinary raw eggs. (Reuters / Aly Song)

Locals believe that these eggs have a special medicinal value, because the urine contains substances that help lower body temperature and stop bleeding. It is also believed that eggs can improve blood circulation and strengthen the immune system. (Reuters / Aly Song)

Chinese medical experts evaluate the "therapeutic" properties of eggs in different ways. Some of them indicate a lack of hygiene standards when cooking eggs. In addition, local doctors claim that there can be nothing good and curative in urine, since waste products that are no longer in demand and even harmful to the human body are removed along with it. (Reuters / Aly Song)

Residents of the city love this unusual dish: they can eat ten similar eggs a day. Eggs will be boiled in urine for many centuries, as there will always be those who want to try them. (Reuters / Aly Song)