Turtle eggs are considered to be very nutritious and purportedly
have a lot of health benefits. Unfortunately, they happen to be illegal
due to the wildlife preservation enactments to prevent rampant poaching
of turtle eggs (which is a protected species) in Malaysia. However, I
managed to hook up with someone who sells turtle eggs through a
coworker.
The transaction was very covert, which I found amusing – the turtle
egg seller called to tell us where he is and we got him to deliver it
to the office. He was an overweight slightly grimy looking man carrying
one of those tote bags with probably 100 turtle eggs inside (and also
some porn VCD’s on the sides). I bought 10 turtle eggs off him for RM
15 (it’s RM 1.50 per turtle egg). The turtle eggs are still sandy from
the beach and each one is about the size of a ping pong ball.
I don’t know how to cook turtle eggs, so we brought it downstairs to
solicit the help of Kakak (literally “Sister” in Malay) who works
downstairs. She told us that it can either be eaten raw, or heated lightly (emphasis on lightly) with boiled water. Thus, we set the wok (there’s a kitchen downstairs, sorta) on boil with some water.
The turtle eggs are washed by putting them under running water to
get rid of the sand. The interesting thing about turtle eggs is that
they’re very pliable – it’s so soft that pressing on it will
make indentation marks (as can be seen in the first two photos). The
turtle eggs in their natural configuration also has that property –
surrounding eggs impact each turtle egg by forming recessions around
each other.
The turtle eggs were then put into the water for a short (less than a minute) amount of time and left to simmer for a bit.
I also got Kakak to pose for a photo beside the cooking wok with the turtle eggs in it. 😉
This is what the slightly heated turtle eggs look like. The eggs are
soft and slightly translucent, so that you can see the yolk inside.
You can eat the turtle eggs by opening up the shell (it’s so soft,
it’s almost like peeling instead of opening) and eating it as it is. It
tastes surprisingly good…it doesn’t need any flavoring for the turtle
egg taste to shine through. Unlike other eggs, turtle eggs have a
distinct musky aftertaste to it.
However, I’m told that the proper way to enjoy turtle eggs is too peel off a small hole at the top…
…and put a drop of soy sauce inside to flavor it, before sucking the whole egg contents.
This method of consumption is more visceral and much more enjoyable. 🙂
