Egg Fu Yong

Egg foo young, also written as egg fu yong or egg fu yung, is a Chinese omelette dish. Its name, which translates to "cotton rose egg" or "lotus egg" from the Chinese characters 芙蓉蛋, comes from the Cantonese pronunciation of those characters.

This dish has its roots in the southern coastal province of Guangdong, formerly known as Canton. In both the United States and Asia, most modern versions are a Cantonese hybrid. The omelette is made with beaten eggs and commonly includes vegetables like bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, sliced cabbage, spring onions, mushrooms, and water chestnuts. When meat is added, options often include roast pork, shrimp, chicken, beef, or lobster.

In Chinese Indonesian cuisine, the dish is called fu yung hai (芙蓉蟹, meaning "hibiscus crab"), sometimes spelled pu yung hai. There, the omelette typically combines vegetables such as carrots, bean sprouts, and cabbage with meats like crab, shrimp, or minced chicken, and is often served in a sweet and sour sauce with peas.

In Western countries, the dish is usually a well-folded omelette with non-egg ingredients mixed into the egg. It may be topped with or served in a sauce or gravy. As early as the 1930s, Chinese chefs in the United States created a pancake version filled with eggs, vegetables, and meat or seafood. A regional variation in St. Louis, Missouri, is the St. Paul sandwich: an egg foo young patty served with mayonnaise, dill pickle, and sometimes lettuce and tomato between two slices of white bread.

In the Netherlands, where Chinese food is influenced by Chinese-Indonesian cuisine, it is known as foeyonghai and is usually served with a sweet tomato sauce. Strictly speaking, the name's "hai" indicates it should contain crab, but it is often made without it.

Similar dishes exist elsewhere. The Vietnamese dish chả trứng hấp resembles egg foo young. In Japanese Chinese cuisine, kani-tama (かに玉 or 蟹玉) uses crab meat instead of ham or other meats. Egg foo young or kani-tama served on plain rice with a thick savory sauce is called tenshin-han (天津飯, Tianjin rice), though no such dish is known in the actual Chinese city of Tianjin. In Malay cuisine, telur bungkus ("wrapped egg") is similar, typically containing chicken or beef, onions, mushrooms, vegetables, and gravy wrapped inside the egg.