and after digging through a wall of eggs to get to my beans and fishcake underneath i've decided it's impossible to make chawanmushi in the micro-oven. it hardens too fast and the result is largely the consistency of scrambled eggs, with only tiny spots that are actually chawanmushi texture. i am now remembering the face-size bowl of chawanmushi i had at an osaka restaurant last summer and going quite weak at the knees.