5 breakfast food you shouldn't miss in China

When traveling in China, food is the one thing you shouldn’t miss. Chinese people usually take breakfast seriously. It is believed that the breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Thus there are tons of Chinese style breakfast, vary from region to region. Here I’m going to introduce the 5 Chinese breakfasts that I like most.

(1) Youtiao with soya milk or Douhua

Youtiao, soya milk and Baozi

Image from: yonho.com

Youtiao literally means “oil stick”. It is a long golden-brown deep-fried strip of dough eaten. Conventionally, Youtiao are lightly salted and crispy in fresh. But after a while it gets soft. I personally prefer fresh fried crispy Youtiao because it’s hot and crispy taste. Some people also like soft ones. They usually dip the soft one into soya milk. For Chinese, Youtiao is normally eaten at breakfast with soy milk or Douhua.

Douhua is made with very soft tofu. Some Westerns call it tufu pudding. But it tastes quite different from pudding. It is really soft that you don’t even need to chew. You can simply drink it. You can choose different toppings for the Douhua. Some people prefer salty and spicy ones while other like to make it sweet. You can easily get Youtiao, soya milk and Douhua at any Chinese restaurants or stands during the breakfast time. They usually open from 6 to 10 in the morning.

Different toppings in Douhua

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(2) All kinds of Congees

Congees in Chinese is 粥(zhou). It is a type of rice porridge or gruel popular in many Asian countries. When eaten as plain rice congee, it is most often served with side dishes. When additional ingredients, such as meat, fish, and flavorings, are added while preparing the congee, it is most often served as a meal on its own. Names for congee are as varied as the style of its preparation. There is sweet congee with all kinds of beans, grain or nuts. There is also salty congee with meat, egg or fish inside. Find it too hard to choose? Here are four most common congees: 红豆粥 (Hongdou zhou, red bean congee, sweet), 燕麦粥 (Yanmai zhou, oat congee, sweet), 香菇鸡肉粥 (Xianggu Jirou zhou, mushroom chicken congee, salty) and 皮蛋廋肉粥 (Pidan sourou zhou, black egg pork congee).

Image from: how01.com

(3) Baozi

Baozi is a type of steamed, filled, bun or bread-like item in various Chinese cuisines, as there is much variation as to the fillings and the preparations. It can be filled with meat, meat soup and/or vegetarian fillings. Regarding to size, there is big Baozi that you can get full after one or two. There is also small Baozi called “Xiaolong bao” that you can easily eat ten. The flavor of Baozi also divides in two kinds, sweet and salty. The sweet Baozi is filled with beans, sweet sauces. The most welcomed one is called 奶黄包 (Naihuang bao, literally means milk egg baozi). It is filled with a kind of yellow creamy sauce, which tastes sweet and creamy. The salty Baozi usually filled with meat, vegetable or fired egg. You can easily find them almost everywhere in China.

Image from: health.morningstar.com.tw

(4) Wonton

Wonton is called 馄饨 (Hundun) or 云吞（Yuntun）or 抄手 (Chaoshou) in Chinese. It is made by wrapping the square wrapper over a small amount of filling in the center. The idea is similar to dumpling, but it tastes different from dumpling. That is because the wrapper for wonton is really thin and the filling is simpler than dumpling. The most common filling for wonton is smashed pork, sometimes shrimps. Wonton is always served in soup, mostly chicken soup. Some people, like me, will add some vinegar to the wonton soup. Sometimes people also add noodles to the wonton soup, called wonton noodle.

Image from: img1.meichubang.com

(5) Contonese Morning Tea

If you have been to the Chinese restaurants in the China town, you must have heard of or tried DimSum. Well, the Contonese Morning Tea is the “party of DimSum”. In a Contonese Moring Tea restaurant, you can order all kinds of snacks, including all the breakfast food I mentioned above. Although it is called Contonese Morning Tea, you can find this type of restaurant all of China. Another good thing about Contonese Morning Tea is that many restaurants serve those DimSum all day long! So there’s no need to worry about getting up early for the Chinese breakfast anymore