Several months ago, I had breakfast with a friend at Out the Door restaurant in Pacific Heights, the second location of a casual Vietnamese restaurant belonging to local favorite chef Charles Phan, of Slanted Door fame. Of the various dishes that we tried, our favorite was the very simple Soft Scrambled eggs.
What made them truly delicious was the addition of soy sauce. While not something I would ever think to add to eggs, it is really a pairing made in heaven. Not only does it add incredible umami (while not overshadowing the natural flavor of the eggs), it also breaks down the eggs to give them a very pleasingly soft consistency. Chives add just a bit of bite and texture, as well as beautiful color contrast.
I have been making these at home for about a month now. All you do is add in a few shakes of soy sauce about 2/3 of the way through your normal scrambled egg cooking process, as well as some snipped chives. If you don't have chives, green onion will do just fine, added to the pan at the beginning of the cooking time. You don't need to add salt or pepper at all, as the seasoning is taken care of with the soy sauce.
They are perfect in the morning with some fruit, mid-day with vegetables or a salad, or for a light breakfast-for-dinner meal with some toasted french bread. The incredible savory taste just leaves you wanting more - hence the magical properties of umami. In fact, I think that word is a spelling error - it should really be YUMami.
