Recently, one of our commenters (goes by Gardener) requested the Chinese recipe for Tomato Fried Eggs. I was giddy with excitement, not just because I got a recipe request, which I love, but because this isn’t the kind of dish you find at restaurants (though a few do offer it). This is the most home-style of home-style dishes, quickly thrown together by moms (or some dads but not mine) when the family needs a quick meal. It’s also a very popular little kid meal because it’s soft, nutritious, and there’s a secret ingredient for the kid-version.
Because nearly every Chinese family eats this dish, it’s got as many versions. Some add scallions but my mom doesn’t. We like it more saucy, more tomato, less egg. Others like it drier, more egg and less tomato. Some stir it into rice while others spoon it over noodles. We’ve done both. I’ve posted the “adult” version but for the pre-schooler version, sprinkle some sugar on the tomatoes while they’re cooking.
When a dish is this simple with only two flavor components, those two components are going to make your dish. My mom grew up in Taiwan, where they raised chickens, which laid eggs, and they grew their own tomatoes. For as far back as I can remember, my mom has been complaining about the pale tomatoes here. If you use the under-ripe tomatoes that are so common in American supermarkets, this dish will suck. Really.
Luckily for me, I used the tomatoes and eggs that were just given to me by Holton Farms. The yolks were golden. The tomatoes were plump, red, and juicy. You can see the vibrant color in these pictures. My mom couldn’t stop raving about how great the ingredients were, making this last minute meal feel like there was more care involved. There is, only with this dish, the credit goes to the farmers and not the chefs. Thanks Jurrien + the Holton Farms family!
Tomato Fried Eggs
~2 to 3 servings
- 2 (.5 lb) beefsteak tomatoes
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 5 large eggs, beaten
- fine sea salt to taste
- freshly ground (white or black) pepper (optional)
Instructions –
1. Peel tomatoes (detailed instructions here). Chop tomatoes into roughly 1.5″ cubes. Set aside.
2. Heat vegetable oil in a wok on high heat. Add the egg and flip around lightly a few times until it is all cooked and looks like scrambled eggs.
3. Remove to a bowl and let it rest for 30 seconds. Some excess oil will drain to the bottom of the bowl. Put that (not the eggs) back in the wok.
4. Add tomatoes and let it come to a light boil, about 2 minutes. Add salt and stir.
5. Add eggs back in and stir. Serve immediately with rice or noodles. Offer pepper to be sprinkled on when eating.
Filed under Chinese, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
My mother used to make this! We loved it. I had forgotten all about it. She added scallions if I remember correctly.
Thanks for the recipe, Jessica!
you peel the skin off of tomatoes! something we don’t do at north.. haha prob because of laziness. .
We still eat this all the time. My mom adds in extra ketchup for extra sauce
Barbara, Le, and Tammy! It’s so funny how everyone knows this dish and everyone makes it differently.
I have never heard of this, but with our local fresh eggs and the wonderful homegrown tomatoes coming in right now … Grainger County, Tennessee tomatoes, this will be fabulous! Thank for sharing this! BTW, tomatoes grown in this heat need to be peeled. The skin gets thick in the really hot sun.
Baz ALWAYS peels tomatoes, I’m the lazy one who doesn’t…I’ll give this a go at the weekend. I like the idea of serving with noodles too, taste buds are working overtime now!
Thanks for posting this. I forgot how good this was over rice. Out of all the dishes from mom, this has got to the be one of the easiest. The question is then, why haven’t I put this one together yet?
Had no idea this was a traditional Chinese recipe/dish. Thanks for sharing it. Serving it with rice sounds like a great way to do breakfast for dinner.
I LOVE this post! This is my dad’s favorite dish. Made me smile when read it. Thanks for posting it.
ops! correction. I meant, the post made me smile when I read it.
i’m really enjoying the authentic chinese recipes you’ve been posting lately, as my experience with the cuisine is woefully lacking. this looks like a dish i’d absolutely adore!
Allyn, thanks for the tomato knowledge. I just bought a little tomato plant but I only have indoor space so fingers-crossed.
Kristina, now that tomatoes are in season, it’s ht eperfect time to rejoice in this simple dish.
OOH I used to love tomatoes and egg and I still do! But I make it with beef and scallions and extra saucy. I also fry the egg over easy, so you get that burst of egg yolk when you pierce it. That’s how my family made, but I like it either way, it just has to be saucy and with rice -=D
Congrats on gutsy food. Eggs and tomatoes go together, of course, but never seen this recipe. Same with potato salad (we’ll just save time and stay on this page), which is universal, but nicely done here. Too often, it’s all about the potato. Like the white bread most of all.
I can’t believe it! When I was in kindergarten a friend’s mother made us this dish. I’m now 24 years old and have never been able to remember exactly what was in this dish…or even what the dish was all about. (You know…fuzzy memories from childhood) Thank you soooooooo much for posting this. I can’t wait to get home and taste the memory again!!!!
PhilandLauren, both of those dishes are ones you’ll rarely get at a restaurant, which is probably why you haven’t seen it. They’re really true home-style dishes.
Gaiul, I’m so glad to jog your memory. That’s part of what I love about food. It has such a strong connection to our memories.
I make this with marinated pork chops or shrimps too and always added a little shredded ginger. I grew up on this dish and it is my goto comfort dish.
I still go to this dish when I need a quick meal and something to remind me of home. The quality of ingredients really make a difference. Now off to find some farm fresh eggs!
Omgg, my mommy makes this all the time. It’s so yummy, but I realize it must sound very strange to outsiders xD
I grew up on this! I prefer more egg, less tomato but probably because my mom used gross, mealy tomatoes. We didn’t add scallions but we definitely added sugar. Your post has made me nostalgic and I think that I just may make this for dinner tonight!
I feel like everyone recognizing this dish in a nostalgic way is like a big group hug. Love it!
I love this dish and grew up with it too!
I made it as a last minute thrown together dish for dinner a few months ago. I felt like we needed a fourth dish on the table (chestnuts and chicken wing braise, greens with oyster sauce, some kind of shrimp veggie stir fry) and my husband went nuts for it. Never mind that I had spent ages cooking and peeling chestnuts and then braising them with the chicken wings, this simple tomato egg dish upstaged everything else. I guess this dish has pretty wide appeal.
This also happened when I did an egg and sweet corn scramble as well as the preserved egg mixed into chinese-style chawan mushi (don’t know the official name for that dish, old and new eggs?). Clearly, the husband likes eggs.
Slow Lorus, I wish hubby liked eggs more but he’s not such a big fan. Scrambled and omelets are ok but he he doesn’t like others which I love like runny yolks, fried over-easy, hard-boiled, thousand year old egg, etc.
jessica, the husband on my end LOVES pei dan (1000-yr-old eggs)!
Remember when those things came out of a huge drum and were caked with mud instead of these antiseptic things that now arrive in a little styrofoam shortbus? My husband never saw the old-style pei dan and I always tell him that he missed out. I could swear they were more intense back then.
Slow Lorus, I missed out too! I’ve only known them to come in styrofoam boxes. =(
In China, some of the egg stalls at mainlander wet markets still sell them caked with mud but even there they’re disappearing fast. And it is sad, the old way also seemed much more environmentally friendly than all that styrofoam and vacuum-sealing. I’m hoping for a surprising comeback for those muddy eggs.
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I remember from many meals in China. “Xihongshi Chao Jidan” was one of my first Chinese phrases…somehow they always knew what I wanted even though I’m sure I didn’t get the tones right.
From the responses, it sounds like many others have a great food memory from this simple dish.
Xie Xie!
Gardener, we all have to thank you for requesting this dish because it does seem to have been wonderfully nostalgic for so many. I haven’t forgotten about the eggplant dish. Coming up…
omg..! I used to eat this when I was little! I could eat 5 bowls of rice with this! haha
Thank you for posting this! I used to work in a Chinese restaurant when I was in high school and they would always cook for the waitresses after work, and this was something they would make. So good! 🙂
man my mum still makes it! DELICIOUS! she actually made it a long time ago and added some ingredients until the very day.
the recipe is cool,I need it very much.In addition,adding some garlic will make the taste better!
This is a great recipe! Brings such great memories of my childhood, Waking up to the smell of eggs and tomatoes cooking in the kitchen. Simply nostalgia!