Century eggs，known as pidan in China，are a well-known food. The key their popularity lies in their flavor （风味）.To boost the deep flavour even further，they're usually made from duck eggs.
The （old） known record of people making century eggs comes from the Ming Dynasty，most likely originating in Hunan Province, （rough） 500 years ago. The traditional curing process，still used by some modern factories, （be） to create a mixture of black tea，lime，salt，and wood ash. This makes a thick paste （糊） in fresh eggs are wrapped and left for around five months. The （coat） eggs are then wrapped in rice husk （稻壳） before （sell） in markets. On sale，they have a coating around a quarter-inch thick，giving them an （appear） a little like preserved dinosaur eggs. It's easy to see how they earned their English name，though the Chinese name of pidan just translates as "preserved egg".
Like many other foods in the world，this unusual approach （create） as a way to preserve food in the days before household refrigerators. The result is that century eggs have an extremely long shelf life though they probably won't last for actual century.
