To make the marinade:

In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients for the marinade.

Bring it to a boil and whisk it a few times to let the sugar dissolved completely. Once boiling, lower the heat to simmer for 1 minute and turn off the heat. Set aside to cool completely.

To make soft boiled eggs:

Add 4 cups (1 liter) water (plus 1 tbsp vinegar and 1 tsp salt - optional but it helps with the peeling of eggshells) in a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil.

There should be enough water to cover the eggs (at least 1 inch above). Once fully boiling (not gentle, but full boil), take out the eggs from the refrigerator and carefully and gently lower one egg at a time into the boiling water with a skimmer or ladle.

When you add the first egg, set a 7 minute timer. 6 to 6 1/2 minutes for runny egg yolk and 8 to 9 minutes for custard - like egg yolk but not runny.

Lower the heat to maintain a gentle boil. Make sure the water is simmering, but not so strong that the eggs bounce around.

If you want your egg yolk to be in the center, gently rotate the eggs with chopsticks once in a while for the first 3 minutes so the egg yolk will be in the center.

After 7 minutes, immediately take out the eggs and shock them in an ice bath for 15 minutes.

Once egg are completely cool, gently crack the wide bottom side of the egg and start peeling vertically to the top. Dip in the ice water a few times which helps with the peeling. Once you peel one section vertically, the rest of the shell comes off easily.

To marinate the eggs:

Place the eggs in a plastic bag and add the marinate into the bag. With the plastic bag, we don’t have to use a lot of the marinade to submerge the eggs. This marinade is one time use for food safety reasons.

To serve:

Take out the eggs and cut them in halves to serve. Use a piece of string fishing line, or cheese cutter to cut the egg in half cleanly. Enjoy the eggs as a snack or ramen topping.

To store:

Keep the eggs in the refrigerator all the time. Enjoy the eggs within 3 -4 days if your eggs are soft boiled. If your eggs are hard boiled, you can keep them in the refrigerator for up to a week.