Chinese Breakfast

[eatingwitheddie]

Do you eat Chinese breakfast?

What do you like to eat?

Sweet or salty soy bean milk with fried dough?

Congee?

A cup of coffee and a bun?

Bacon & eggs?

[anil]

The opportunity during the weekday is non-existent in my neighborhood.

However during the weekend, Congee, some dim-sum, fried dough and condensed milk - yum yum

Congee {Bowery south of Grand}, Congee Village {Allen} and the regular dim-sum places are best bets. Some times, Tea houses for cakes, snacks.

St. Alps has now moved next door to Jin Fong on Elizabeth.

Edited May 14, 2003 by anil (log)

[tissue]

I buy steamed pork/napa buns or pork/mushroom buns from a local bakery and bring them to work.

I have to microwave them but that's fine. I wrap them in a wet paper towel and then plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out.

They are quite large, so one is enough. It's hot, savory, and satisfying.

[amamus1]

When I grew up in a small rural town in the south of Hunan province (my parents were German medical missionaries), we always had traditional German breakfasts, oatmeal (wormy and buggy), milk from our two cows as long as we had them (otherwise soy milk), or eggs and toast. So, I was never exposed to Chinese breakfasts.

When I went to visit my childhood haunts a few years ago with the area finally opened to Westerners, we stayed at "3-star" hotels that had never seen any Western visitors. For breakfast the two of us were served congee and trimmings, an assortment of about 20 dim sum, plus fruit. Heaven!

Why do most tourists insist on a Western breakfast?

Now my wife and I are on different schedules for breakfast. So I make Chinese breakfasts for myself after she has left for work. Congee, preserved eggs, pickled radish, etc.

Godfrey

[trillium]

My very favorite Chinese breakfast is jook with raw fish, followed by pai dan yuk jook. There used to be this little place in an alley in SF's chinatown that catered to mah jong players where you could get it all night and morning, alas, they're no longer. My partner loves teochew style jook. Like I mentioned in the bone soup thread, there's nothing like a steaming bowl of fresh soya milk with yew char kway fresh from the oil. I also like steamed choy yuk bao. Sigh...can't get any of that here, unless I make it myself.

regards,

trillium

[dumpling]

Pork meat ball jook with strips of fresh ginger steaming on a cold day accompanied by a nice long crunchy yu tiao.

My father would tell me stories of jook peddlars in the city - how they'd walk around and call up to the people in the window, "Jook for sale! Nice fresh jook for sale". You'd call down from your second story window "Send some up!" He'd put it on a long pole and send it up and you'd send down the money. As I grew up in Bergen County I always wished that in addition to the ice cream man, we'd get that jook peddlar and he'd send the jook up to my bedroom first thing in the morning. Ah, 'tis to dream.

[Shiewie]

I have Chinese breakfasts mainly on weekends.

I like

- jook with salted egg, ham choy (preserved salted vegetables) and fried anchovies

- char siu pau

- pei tan sau yook jook

- yau char kwai (yu tiao / fried dough) dunked in sweetened black coffee

- chee cheong fun (rolled flat rice noodles with teem cheong and a sprinkling of sesame seeds).

- ban chang kueh (a huge chinese pancake with a filling of crushed peanuts and sugar that is folded in two and cut into segments)

- "chinese-style" soft boiled eggs (soft-boiled eggs eaten with soya sauce and a sprinkling of pepper)

[dumpling]

Big Wong in New York's Chinatown has good jook.

[dumpling]

Lovely dim sum lunch yesterday at Silver Pond in Fort Lee. Starting with shrimp and cilantro wrapped in fried beancurd skin roll. Then some really nice pai gwot-they have a savory little broth in which the ribs are steamed. Followed by har gow(shrimp dumpling), yu chi gow(shark's fin dumpling), and some fried soft shell crab which was juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Finishing up with some tasty seen jook gun(meat in beancurd skin steamed in a brown sauce). Umm, Umm.

[Suzanne F]

Mmmm, congee with pork and preserved egg, fried dough to dip. Isn't that just a variation of ham and eggs and toast, grits on the side?

[dumpling]

Mmmm, congee with pork and preserved egg, fried dough to dip.  Isn't that just a variation of ham and eggs and toast, grits on the side? 

Perhaps, but a mighty tasty variation!

Have you ever had the sweet fried dough? That's really great in the congee as well and will give you your required oil for the week.

[Hest88]

If I were able to get it before work, jook would be an ideal breakfast. It's the closest thing to comfort food for me.

I'm not too fond of anything sweet or too greasy early in the morning, but for weekend brunch sweet soy milk is wonderful.

[tissue]

I like the rice balls. They are shaped long. It's like a onigiri except made with glutinous rice. Stuffed with the chinese donut and pork sung. Very filling.

[Gary Soup]

Do you eat Chinese breakfast?

What do you like to eat?

Sweet or salty soy bean milk with fried dough?

Congee?

A cup of coffee and a bun?

Bacon & eggs?

Salty doujiang or doufu hua, conyou bing, shengjian bao. Xiaolong bao if available.

That's what I go for when I'm in Shanghai. Have to go out of my way to get them here in San Francisco, though.

[mudbug]

Here's one: Salty Soybean Milk Soup Recipe

[Gary Soup]

Here's one:

And here's what goes with it:

[mudbug]

lol,

Yes Gary Soup!

Here is the whole recipe for those who don't want to click on the link provided above:

Salty Soybean Milk Soup

Made with sweet soybean milk, this northern Chinese dish is a popular item at street hawker stands.

Ingredients (Quantites may be adjusted according to taste):

2 C Sweet Soybean Milk (boiled)

1/4 - 1/2 of a Cruller diced into half inch cubes

1/2 tsp Dried Shrimp

2 T Szechuan pickled mustard greens

1 tsp Pork Sung/Pork Fu

1/2 tsp Rice vinegar

1 tsp Chili oil

1 tsp Soy sauceÊ

1/2 tsp Sesame Oil

1/2 tsp SaltÊ

Green onion minced sprinkling to taste or for garnish

Coriander sprinkling to taste or for garnish

Directions:

Place all the ingredients with the exception of the soybean milk into a medium size bowl. Pour the boiled soybean milk into the bowl and serve.Ê

Crullers

Pork Sung/Pork Fu (Shredded meat with five-spice flavor. Jerky like. Ready to serve as appetizer or side dish.)

Sweet Soybean Milk (Dou Jiang, Do Jiang)

This popular northern Chinese dish is often eaten for breakfast with deep-fried crullers, and forms the basis of Salted Soybean Milk Soup.Ê

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2/3 pound soybeans

2 cups sugar

Directions:

Rinse the soybeans until the water runs clear. Put the beans in a pot and add water. (The water should be three times the amount of the soybeans).Ê

Soak the beans until they expand to 2 or 2 1/2 times. In hot weather, soak the beans for 6 to 8 hours; in cold weather, soak the beans for 12 - 14 hours.

Drain the beans and discard the soaking water. Add 7 more cups of water. Blend the beans and water in several batches until the beans are finely blended.Ê

Place the beans and 8 cups water in a cheesecloth bag; squeeze out the liquid. Retain the liquid and discard the sediment left in the cheesecloth bag.Ê

Bring the retained soybean liquid to a boil over medium heat. Turn the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes to remove the strong taste from the beans. Add sugar to the soybean milk and serve.Ê

Chinese Crullers (Yu-Char-Koay/You Tiau)

* 1 loaf of frozen bread dough

* oil for deep frying

Thaw the bread dough overnight in the refrigerator. About 1 hour before using, remove it from the refrigerator and tear the dough into about 20 pieces.

Roll each piece between your hands to form long rope shapes.

Let them stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

Heat oil for deep-frying. When oil is ready, take each strip of dough and pull, twisting both ends before dropping into the oil. Deep-fry until golden brown.

Remove and drain on paper towels.

I like to then dust them gently with cinnamon and sugar, but that's not a part of the original Chinese recipe.

This recipe makes 20 crullers or 10 servings (aka Fried Devils).

Crispy Chinese Crullers (Yu-Char-Koay/You Tiau)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

6 C. ( 1 1/2 lbs) high protein flour

2 C. water

oil

2 t. ammonium bicarbonate or I T. baking powder

2 t. baking soda

11/2 t. alum* (food grade)

1 1/2 t. Salt

Preparation instructions:

1: Place ingredients A in a mixing bowl; add water and stir until the ingredients have dissolved. Add flour and mix well; let stand for 15- 20 minutes. Use your hand to take some dough around edges and drop it into the center of the dough; let stand for 15-20 minutes. Continue to drop the dough in the center of the bowl 3 or 4 times until the dough is elastic and smooth. Turn the dough over and lightly coat the surface with oil so that the dough will stay moist. Let it stand for I hour.Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a sheet of plastic wrap; wrap the dough and form it into a rectangular shape. Let it stand for 4 hours. If a large batch is made, cut the dough into several I I/; lose pieces then wrap each piece in a sheet of plastic wrap.

2: Unwrap the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough and attech if into a long strip. Roll the dough into a rectangular shape, 3" wide and 1/16 thick. Crosswise cut the rectangular shaped dough into strips, 1/3 wide. Put two strips on top of each other; Use a thin rod (skewer) or the back of a cleaver to press lengthwise in middle of the strips; this will attach them securely to each other. Follow the same step for the other strips. Heat the oil for deep-frying; pick up a strip from the ends and gently stretch it to make it longer. Carefully drop it into the hot oil and turn it over continuously with chopsticks until the cruller expands and turns golden brown; remove.

The hot cutlers may be placed in split "Flaky Sesame Flat Breads" (''Shau Bing") or served with "Salty or Sweet Soy Bean Milk".

* Alum may be omitted if it is unavailable