Bread in China

[liuzhou]

I’ve said this before and I’ll likely say it again because it bugs me. If you are coming to China for any reason and are partial to the occasional sandwich, unless you are in Beijing or Shanghai, you will be out of luck.

 

Most Chinese don’t know what bread is, They think they do but are very mistaken. What passes for bread here is 99% of the time cake. Bread shaped cake. Breadalike.

 

China’s breads are almost all steamed rather than baked. So I’d like to introduce you to some of what I can buy anywhere but never do (and a few exceptions).

 

 

I’ll start with 馒头 (mán tou), probably the most common. This is a steamed roll made from the same dough as 包子 (bāo zi), bao buns, but unfilled and often sweetened with sugar.

 

Occasionally, they are coloured using vegetable (or artificial) dyes. depending on what colouring agent is used, these may or mat not taste any different from the plain ones.

 

 

Images from Meituan online shopping app,

 

 

[liuzhou]

Like slice of toast with your breakfast? You could use your phone translation app to ask for toast in a restaurant. You won’t get it though unless you are in a hotel breakfast room or restaurant catering to foreigners.

 

All the translation apps translate toast as 土司 (tǔ sī). This, as you can see, is a sound-alike loanword from the English toast. Except it doesn’t mean toast at all. It is what linguists call ‘a false friend’. Sort of like when French learners guess ‘travail’ means ‘travel’, when it means ‘work’.

 

It simple means 'sliced bread'. 

 

Some joker saw sliced bread and assumed it was that mysterious thing he’d heard of but never seen – toast. Misnamed it and it stuck. So, that's what you’ll get. Dreadful, low-quality blotting paper slices of CWP ‘bread’. Often sweet, too.

 

土司 (tǔ sī) - 'toast'?

 

Here’s a tip. Instead of asking for 土司 (tǔ sī), try asking for 烤面包 (kǎo miàn bāo) . This is a more accurate translation and translates as ‘broiled / grilled bread’.

 

However they will in 99% of cases take some of the blotting paper and broil that then serve it cold.

 

 

 

[KennethT]

10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Most Chinese don’t know what bread is, They think they do but are very mistaken. What passes for bread here is 99% of the time cake. Bread shaped cake. Breadalike.

 

I've seen this in a few places in Indonesia also - but always in places that are serving foreigners, almost exclusively - like dive resorts whose clientele is mainly European or Australian (and the odd American or two).  Otherwise there's nothing resembling bread at all.  Unless, of course, you're in a cafe or higher class hotel in Jakarta, in which case all bets are off.  It could be just like a French boulangerie in those places!

[KennethT]

10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

 

I’ll start with 馒头 (mán tou), probably the most common. This is a steamed roll made from the same dough as 包子 (bāo zi), bao buns, but unfilled and often sweetened with sugar.

 

Is fried mantou a thing there?  I've seen that in Singapore...

[liuzhou]

44 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Is fried mantou a thing there?  I've seen that in Singapore...

 

Yes.

[Ddanno]

Can you get strong flour and yeast to bake your own? (although I seem to remember that ovens aren't exactly common, at least in HK, so it might not do you much good anyway)

[liuzhou]

6 minutes ago, Ddanno said:

Can you get strong flour and yeast to bake your own? (although I seem to remember that ovens aren't exactly common, at least in HK, so it might not do you much good anyway)

 

Yes, I can easily get the necessary. In fact, I used to make my own regularly. In a large toaster oven. However serious health issues over the last few years put an and to that. I'm no longer physically able to.

[Ddanno]

3 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Yes, I can easily get the necessary. In fact, I used to make my own regularly. In a large toaster oven. However serious health issues over the last few years put an and to that. I'm no longer physically able to.

Ah that sucks. Sorry. 

[liuzhou]

However dire, offerings are, there are a few honourable exceptions, top of which I give you 馕 (náng). This is a speciality of China’s huge far-western province of Xinjiang which borders Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Russia and Mongolia.

 

Xinjiang is predominantly populated by the Muslim Uyghur people and has a very district cuisine. 馕 (náng) comes from there. In the Uyghur language, they call it نان (nan), meaning bread.. This in turn comes from the identical Persian word for bread.

 

The main type of Xinjiang bread is of course, what is now known in the west as naan, although it was spelled ‘nan’ in English until around the 1970s. This I can find in many of the popular Xinjiang style restaurants found all over China.

 

Again, seldom baked in homes, in Xinjiang it is sold in the many naan bakeries in every town or village. Unlike Indian or other naan, the Xinjiang variety is usually ornately decorated.

 

Xinjiang nang

 

Sadly, I can also get Mission brand Indian style ‘naan’ which is foul in comparison. Sweet and cloying. Indian in appearance only.

 

 

Mission 'Indian style' naan. I'm on a mission to eradicate it.

 

 

 

[Ddanno]

I've never had a pre-packed naan I liked, godspeed in killing off Mission Deli

[liuzhou]

But enough good news.

 

As if the abovementioned toast wasn't bad enough, beware of this.

 

 

It is the dreaded 'toast' again but this time unsliced and worse. It is called 红豆吐司 (hóng dòu tǔ sī) and is flavoured with sweet red aduki bean paste. Very sweet and nasty cake; not what I call bread..

 

 

Edited July 28 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

Are croissants bread? Arguable. Wikipedia describes them as a cross between bread and flaky pastry, but Wikipedia is flaky, itself. The Chinese name is 牛角面包 (niú jiǎo miàn bāo), literally cow horn bread.

 

 

Whatever, the vendors of these translate them as croissants which they 100% aren’t. Although hinting at being crescent-shaped but forgetting to curve, in fact, in addition to looking slightly under baked, they contain in their depths industrial ham and pink slime sausages dressed with sweet mayonnaise.

 

A hanging crime in that France.

 

 

Edited July 29 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

We also get 法棍 (fǎ gùn), literally French sticks.

 

These are baguettes 🥖. Sometimes. Never great, the best come from Walmart or a Taiwan chain of restaurants here on mainland China. Those from local bakeries are highly unpredictable.

 

They aren’t anywhere close to the real French baguettes my French grandmother bought every morning, but are edible bread.

 

Walmart China Baquettes

 

 

[Smithy]

11 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

We also get 法棍 (fǎ gùn), literally French sticks.

 

These are baguettes 🥖. Sometimes. Never great, the best come from Walmart or a Taiwan chain of restaurants here on mainland China. Those from local bakeries are highly unpredictable.

 

They aren’t anywhere close to the real French baguettes my French grandmother bought every morning, but are edible bread.

 

Walmart China Baquettes

 

 

 

Well, they look convincing in the photo!

[liuzhou]

Yes, but....

 

They last for a few days, which baguettes in France (or Vietnam) don't. In France four hours at best. 

 

In Vietnam, bánh mì sellers get two or three deliveries or bake the same number of batches throughout the day.

 

In France, you have to get up early or go without. 

 

 

Edited July 29 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

One saving grace.

 

I’ve never met anyone in China who knows what sourdough is but I know the Chinese; it’s 酸面包 (suān miàn bāo), literally sour bread. A couple of months ago, I found this online, described by the seller as “Whole Wheat Sourdough Rubon Country Bread Multi-grain French Old Bread German Sourdough Bread”!

 

The sellers are obviously confused. Rubon county doesn’t exist and isn’t even a possible Chinese name and as far as I remember France and Germany are two different countries.

 

 

The bread is baked in Anhui province, 1,368 km / 850 miles from me. It takes 2-3 days to arrive, but isn’t bad, if not great. It’s also rather pricy for China at $7.25 USD for a 500 gram loaf. But needs must..

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

… and then there’s this Wheat Mix Bread,

 

The bakery is in Beijing and doesn’t claim dual nationality, settling instead on German. However, it’s firmly Chinese and most of their goods are the same old Chinese not-bread bread.

They sell these  OK 500g loaves for $5.75 a loaf, but recently slapped on a ridiculous $5.16 delivery charge, essentially doubling the price. I had been buying them for about two years at a much lower delivery price. The sourdough above has free delivery, so these fake Germans are now off my shopping list.

 

 

Edited July 30 by liuzhou (log)

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

"Whole Wheat Sourdough Rubon Country Bread Multi-grain French Old Bread German Sourdough Bread”!

 

That's one of the funnier labels I've read in a while! 😀 

 

Too bad it's only "not bad". It looks great in the photos.

[liuzhou]

 

 

30 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

That's one of the funnier labels I've read in a while! 😀 

 

Too bad it's only "not bad". It looks great in the photos.

 

The label is about normal around here.

 

I found toasting improves it.

 

 

[Ddanno]

What Smithy said. Looks like a decent bread, shame it doesn't hit the mark.

 

I'm more shocked by the prices, I would struggle to find a loaf for five quid in borough market

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, Ddanno said:

What Smithy said. Looks like a decent bread, shame it doesn't hit the mark.

 

I'm more shocked by the prices, I would struggle to find a loaf for five quid in borough market

 

You cant really tell from the price alone. What you have to consider is also the average income in China is correspondingly low. It's no less cheap for the average Chinese person.

 

And Borough Market is expensive anyway!

 

 

[Ddanno]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

You cant really tell from the price alone. What you have to consider is also the average income in China is correspondingly low. It's no less cheap for the average Chinese person.

 

And Borough Market is expensive anyway!

 

 

 

That's my point, a fiver for bread is unthinkable!

[liuzhou]

Another bread I used to bake myself but now routinely buy is this pita-like bread from Xi’an, where I lived a long time ago. It is the bread most often used in 肉夹馍 (ròu jiā mó), Rou Jia Mo.

 

Rou Jia Mo

The bread is called 白吉饼 (bái jí bǐng). There is a recipe in the first post of the Rou Jia Mo topic linked to above. Unusually, it is not steamed, but dry-fried then baked.

 

Bai Ji Bing

 

 

 

 

Edited August 1 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

About 25 years ago, a family owned bakery opened here in town by the name of Maison Cherry. The master baker was a family member who had trained in Paris. I got to know the family quite well, especially the eldest daughter who had studied English, used the English name Cherry and liked to chat when I went in.

 

 

The bakery made many cakes which didn’t interest me but also made great French bread of several types – pain de campagne, boule de pain, etc and real croissants. The one thing they didn’t do was baguettes. I asked why and was told it was because ‘people here don’t understand them’. They had trialled them but got tired of people coming back next day complaining they had gone stale too quickly.

 

 

But, for about four years, I lived happily. They reserved me a loaf every couple of days and called me when it was ready. Then, one day, I was passing their bakery shop and it was closed. Permanently. I tried to call the daughter but her phone service had been cancelled. They just disappeared. I’ve never been able to find out what happened.

 

 

Their store is now a Chinese KFC knock-off. I weep.

 

 

Edited August 2 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

These monstrosities may look like white bread for toasting or sandwiches. No such thing!

 

Described by the store as 黄金芝士条 ~ 流心芝士下午茶 (huáng jīn zhī shì tiáo ~ liú xīn zhī shì xià wǔ chá), Golden Cheese Bars ~ Lava Cheese Afternoon Tea Collection.

 

 

What kind of cheese they use is not divulged but I would bet heavily on it being American ‘cheese’ which isn’t cheese! Of course, I've never bought it to test!