Thousand Year Old Eggs and the Easter Bunny

September 28, 2011

Thousand Year Old Eggs and the Easter Bunny

Published: 2011-09-28
When I was a little girl a favorite treat for me was eating thousand year old eggs or 皮蛋. At our family dinners I would wait impatiently as my grandmother ate her share first (at Chinese dinners the elders always had the first pick). She loved the shining smooth black and green eggs with the unique creamy/jellyish texture as much as I did. But always, when my dearest grandma caught me greedily eyeing the diminishing pile of thousand year eggs she would quickly choose a nice piece with her chopsticks and gently place it in my rice bowl. Yum, yum! Thank you 奶奶!

Imagine then my childish delight to discover that my beloved thousand year eggs were being featured (so I thought) in the made for TV stop motion animation "Here Comes Peter Cottontail", a Rankin/Bass production that was shown on TV every year at Easter. In the story the Easter Bunny loses his job to a badass goth bunny named Irontail. Even his Easter eggs are turned green-black inside and out. Just imagine that: Thousand Year Old Easter Eggs!

Irontail with his magic (black) egg

In order to get his job as Easter Bunny back Peter Cottontail must give away these green-black eggs but no one wants them because of the unusual color. Finally on St Patrick's Day he is able to give away all his eggs and gets his job of being the Easter Bunny back once more. I really loved those wonderful TV specials. Everytime any holiday rolled around I would start pestering my parents about when these specials would air. They were truly magical. Too bad in Hong Kong they never show them. I must get a copy of these specials eventually to show my little girl.