Restaurant sells exotic scrambled eggs for ₹7,000: Social media reacts, ‘Looks no different from what my mum cooks’

A Shanghai restaurant has sparked debate over a pricey dish. Jinlong Dabianlu Restaurant sells stir-fried tomatoes and scrambled eggs. The price is a staggering 520 yuan, roughly ₹7,000.

This dish is usually a cheap, everyday household staple. Yet, this version costs dozens of times more elsewhere. Vloggers visited the restaurant and filmed the cooking process. They then shared these clips widely on Chinese social media, according to the South China Morning Post.

The chef uses a large, dark green emu egg. It replaces the usual chicken or duck egg. The shell is so thick he needs a hammer. He cracks it into a goblet, not a bowl. According to vloggers, this adds "a true sense of ceremony".

The tomatoes are a premium Provence Tomato variety originating in the Netherlands. The cooking method itself remains completely standard, though.

One vlogger described the dish as tender and smooth. The restaurant only prepares one portion each day. Ingredients cost around 200 yuan (around ₹2,800) in total. The emu egg alone costs at least 150 yuan ( ₹2,100).

It is imported specially from Germany, the chef said. Tomatoes cost roughly 50 yuan ( ₹700) for the dish. The chef explained the pricing logic behind it.

This dish is served mainly for advance bookings. Its price ignores usual tomato-and-egg business logic.

“This dish is usually served to customers who have booked in advance. So, its price is not made based on the ordinary business logic for stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs,” SCMP quoted the chef as telling the media.

The story triggered widespread discussion across Chinese social media. Many users were shocked by the final price. One person thought it cost just 52 yuan.

“It looks no different from what my mum cooks,” wrote one user.

Someone joked that buyers were paying an "IQ tax".

“People who order this dish are paying for their IQ tax [meaning the cost of their foolish behaviour],” the user quipped.

Another user defended the restaurant's transparent pricing policy. According to the user, customers choose to buy it freely.

This tomato and egg dish remains hugely popular nationwide. People still argue over how it should taste. Southern Chinese cooks typically add sugar to it. Northern Chinese cooks usually leave the sugar out, according to the publication.

Emu farming in India

According to a 2012 report by The Hindu, emu farming started in India in 1996. Commercial farming began in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, around 2000, the publication quoted N Ramamurthy, Professor of Poultry Science at Madras Veterinary College, as saying.

On B2B online marketplaces such as IndiaMART, emu eggs are available for customers at ₹800 a piece.