Offbeat Eats: Egg Foo Young in Gainesville

By Matthew T. Eng, Offbeat NOVA

I don’t get to see my parents much because of COVID, so whenever we do get together safely, it is an event. My daughter counts down the days before we head over there to spend some quality time with her grandma and grandpa. They recently moved into a Gainesville semi-retirement community from Hampton Roads at the end of 2019 when my father (thankfully) retired. 

The first time we visited their house in Gainesville back in pre-COVID times at the end of 2019, we decided to go out to eat and celebrate their new and exciting future in Northern Virginia. The problem was we didn’t know where to eat. We did what anybody does in an area they aren’t familiar with: go immediately to Yelp and see what restaurant is rated best. For the area, the highest rated place in the vicinity was a barbecue joint called “JIMBO’s.” We figured we would give it a try. Hey, maybe it would be our new favorite spot to come when visiting mom and dad. Right?

Wrong. 

We walked in, and the place was crowded. It smelled of smoke and the music was too loud. It looked like somewhere I would love to go to when I was younger and dumber. It definitely wasn’t somewhere you take your three-year-old. We walked out of there and kept looking in the shopping center off Heathcote Boulevard. It was cold in December 2019, so we knew we had to make some fast decisions. Thankfully, there was an asian restaurant right next to JIMBO’s called Taste of Asian. There were a few people in there, thus passing my dad’s “won’t go anywhere that is COMPLETELY empty, so we decided went inside out of the cold. 

The first meal there was fantastic. Enthusiastic service. Hot food. They even gave Zelda some fried donuts, most likely because my father ordered so much food. THAT became our go-to place every time we visited my parents. It still is. The more we went, the more dishes we tried, until I found the one I can’t live without when I make a visit. Every time I visit my parents in Gainesville, I only have one thing in mind off their menu: egg foo young. I’ve eaten this particular Chinese-American fusion dish in almost every Chinese takeout place I frequent. I can confidently say, without reservation, that Taste of Asian in Gainesville has the best egg food young I have ever had.  

What makes it so special and delectable for casual Asian-American diners and Chinese food purists alike? Well, it turns out that answer is a bit complicated. 

As chef and food blogger Melissa Joulwan said in her excellent writeup on egg foo young, the dish has a “deliciously confused identity.” I won’t bore you with the history, mostly because she has already written an incredibly succinct one on her website HERE. 

I like to get rid of the stigma that eggs are only for breakfast. Culinarily, that seems distinctly American, doesn’t it? Look, James Bond ate eggs for dinner quite often in the novels. You can, too. 

As unique as the dish is, egg foo young falls in line with a lot of strikingly similar egg-centric dishes in Asian cuisine. The Filipino torta. Japanese okinomiyaki. Malaysian roti john. Indian masala omelette. Korean gyeran jjim. The list goes on. 

While there are obviously variations to each of these, they all follow a similar pattern of some sort of egg omelette or pancake with vegetables, meat, and a sauce. Think of what you would normally get at your Chinese takeout place as another version of Americanized Chiense food, like Chop Suey or a crab rangoon (sorry if you think people from China people eat that).

The traditional ingredients include several eggs, onions, bean sprouts, cabbage, and some sort of meat to help bind everything together. The version at Taste of Asian skips a lot of the vegetables and focuses more on the cabbage, onion, and egg. In a sense, it somewhat resembles the okinomyaki previously mentioned. It is then fried in hot oil until crispy on the edges and soft and fluffy in the center. A gravy is made from the leftover oil using a simple flour mixture and served on the side to pour over the hot and greasy egg pancakes over rice. 

It truly is a dish to die for, and you very well may die from it. 

Let’s get one thing straight. This dish is absolutely delicious, but it does have its unintended (or intended?) consequences. The calorie count is not for the feint of heart. Looking online at a single serving of egg foo young will give you a sticker shock to say the least. Add in a healthy amount of steamed white rice and you have, at least for me, a once every few months guilty (and I mean guilty) pleasure. And trust me: it tastes MUCH better than it looks.

When we first got the pork egg foo young from Taste of Asian, I was expecting to eat only a half piece. After all, the pancakes are as large as the circumference of a traditional round Chinese restaurant takeout container. I ate a full piece, complete with two helpings of gravy. I wanted more, but knew that would probably be a bad idea. Nowadays, I limit myself to a half piece on top of my rice with gravy. You can’t give a junkie a full fix all the time, right? By the end of the meal, my dad and I are fighting over the remaining pieces to take home for leftovers.

I know this doesn’t need to be said, but if you are in the area, you should check out this restaurant. In fact, if you are looking for takeout, get one from an asian-run business. One thing that isn’t talked about is the negative stigma of COVID against asians, especially for Chinese. I shudder to think how many Asian-owned businesses have been negatively impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. So, do yourself a favor and order yourself this heartbeat-racing comfort food (and a few others) and enjoy it with your family. 

Oh, and wear a mask while you’re at it. 

Taste of Asian website (they aren’t a sponsor or anything…just really good food)