Last Friday I made the Creamy Layered Scrambled Eggs (Whampoa Eggs) recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook.

No new ingredients for this dish. Cornstarch and small cubes of butter are whisked into beaten eggs along with some fish sauce. The beaten eggs are then quickly cooked as a thin omelette in the wok. Right before completely set, it’s pushed to one side of the pan and then moved to a plate.

Interestingly, I had just watched Alex French Guy Cooking’s video “The Egg Problem No Chef Has Ever Cracked (Kenji Lopez NYT Article)” where Alex tries a similar cornstarch and butter trick for scrambled eggs from Lopez-Alt. This recipe is basically that, but with the added wok cooking technique.

The recipe makes two to three servings, so I doubled it for the four of us. For the as-written volume you cook half the eggs at a time, so I had four tries at following the cooking instructions. I’m glad for the extra practice because I needed it. I wish I had a video to reference.

For my first attempt, I don’t think I tilted the wok enough to get the eggs thin enough to cook as quick as they need to. That batch came out a little overcooked. After that, I think I got the hang of it. I really had to tilt the wok and swirl to get the eggs wide and thin enough to cook in the directed thirty seconds.

Since we were having the eggs for dinner, I served with rice and salad. The eggs did come out quite tasty and creamy; I’ll certainly make them again. My wife and I both enjoyed them. My daughter did not try them. My son, who declared that he didn’t like scrambled eggs, said “they’re better than regular scrambled eggs,” so I’m calling that a win.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.