Surprise Appearance: Way Back Love's Chinese Tomato & Eggs
Easy, tasty comfort food that doesn't require special ingredients
I’m back–at least for a while. I’ve become a certified dyslexia tutor, which took a year to complete. I start work on a more advanced certification in the fall, but I’m hoping it won’t take up as much time.
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There are a lot of commonalities between the various Asian cuisines. Take dumplings–there’s Japanese gyoza, Chinese jiaozi, and Korea’s mandu. They all taste pretty much the same.
Ditto for hot pot. There are differences between Japan’s relatively plain shabu shabu and the more flavorful Korean jeongol and Chinese huoguo. Still it’s all about cooking meat and vegetables tableside in a pot of broth.
There are also dishes that are firmly identified with one country–like Chinese tomato and egg stir fry (fan qie chao dan). It’s a homey, comfort food that is only known (at least on the Internet) as Chinese tomatoes and eggs. On Google, there is no such thing as Korean tomatoes and eggs. I’ve never seen it on the menu of a Korean restaurant. It’s actually not available at a lot of Chinese restaurants.
So I was quite surprised to see in the first episode of the drama Way Back Love (Viki, 2025) that a Korean restaurant was serving tomato and egg stir fry. There’s nothing wrong with that; I’m not crying cultural appropriation. It was just unusual.
Way Back Love stars Kim Min-ha (Jeong Hee-wan) of Pachinko fame and Gong Myung (Kim Ram Woo), who also is currently in Mercy for None. They first meet in high school when Jeong Hee-wan, a outgoing girl who likes to have fun, proposes switching names with Kim Ram Woo, a shy and awkward nerd. We also see them six years later in very different circumstances: she’s living as a recluse, and he’s come back from the dead.
Jeong’s father owns a restaurant, and one night Kim Ram Woo and his mother stop in for dinner. He offers to make them his speciality: tomato and egg stir fry. Of course, Kim Ram Woo and his mother declare that it's delicious.
My experience with tomatoes and eggs started 15 years ago when we came back from a trip to China with several packets of preserved vegetables, and I was looking for a recipe to use them with. I found out that the vegetables are often served as a condiment alongside the egg stir fry.
A few years later, we went back to China and ordered tomatoes and eggs after we had walked up and down Mount Qingcheng in Chengdu. It was one of many dishes we ordered for lunch. No preserved vegetables, however.
We also did a noodle making class in a Shanghai home. When we were done, they boiled up the noodles and served fan qie chao dan along with it.
Tomatoes and eggs became part of our regular meal rotation at home, often on Sunday nights. It was tasty and easy to make with ingredients I usually had on hand. Bonus: it’s one of two egg dishes my kid will eat. In fact, they like it so much that they actually make it at college. My guess is that the sesame oil and white pepper ingredients mask the eggy flavor that my kid doesn’t like.
There’s a ton of recipes for this on the Internet. The one that I settled on years ago is from the blog Rasa Malaysia, which is produced by Bee Yinn Low, a Chinese-Malaysian.
In Way Back Love, they ate this with wonton noodle soup. We usually eat it with rice. Preserved vegetables, when we have them. Kimchi would probably be a very good accompaniment. Even a green salad topped with vinaigrette would be a nice contrast.
I can’t give you a verdict on Way Back Love. I haven’t watched enough of it, though it’s off to a good start. If Episode 1 is any indication, however, I’m looking forward to more cozy foodie scenes in the restaurant of Jeong’s father.
Recipe Notes:
The only real change from the recipe on Rasa Malaysia is I doubled the number of eggs because there’s no way four eggs would be enough for three people in my family.
Shaoxing wine is an inexpensive rice wine used for cooking in a lot of Asian dishes. If you don’t have it, you can use an equal amount of cooking sherry, regular sherry, white wine, or mirin. You can also leave it out and it won’t change things too much.
I use Qian Hu Shaoxing wine though it says Shao Hsing on the label. However, any brand will probably be fine. White pepper is not as pungent as black pepper. So if you try to substitute black for white, use only half the amount.
While I doubled the amount of eggs from the original recipe, I did not double the amount of tomatoes. If you love tomatoes, go for it. I also prefer using cherry tomatoes that are cut in half.
Do not overcook the eggs. You want them to be just set when you take them out of the pan. Remember that they go back in the pan after the tomatoes are done and will cook up a little more.
Chinese Tomato & Egg Stir Fry
This recipe is adapted from Rasa Malaysia’s Chinese Tomatoes and Eggs.
Serves 4
Ingredients
8 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
6 dashes ground white pepper
3 tablespoons cooking oil (divided)
8 oz (230g) tomatoes, cut into thin wedges or cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons water
Condiments (optional): preserved vegetables, green onions, kimchi
Instructions
Break the eggs into a bowl and use chopsticks or a fork to beat them.
Add salt, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, and ground white pepper. Continue to beat and stir until well combined.
Heat a skillet with 2.5 tablespoons of cooking oil.
Add the egg mixture to the skillet and spread the eggs evenly. Stir continuously, gently breaking the lumps of egg into smaller pieces.
Once the eggs are set, remove them from the skillet. (Do not overcook.)
Wipe out the skillet with a paper towel and heat it again with 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil.
Add the tomato and stir quickly. Add the sugar and water to the tomatoes.
Cover with a lid and cook for about 30 seconds. Transfer the eggs back into the wok, stir-fry for another 30 seconds, then serve immediately with any condiments.
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