During my stay in China, I would usually go to class a half hour early just so that I could sit alone in the classroom and enjoy one youtiao (油条) and a cup of warm soy milk. That would be my daily breakfast.
I know that youtiao is prevalent all over the world now, but I was really happy to have had it in its country of origin.
In Indonesia, where I come from, youtiao is called cakwe (taken from the hokkien name for youtiao = "yu charkway"). They are simply just fried salty dough strips. In my home country, we would usually have youtiao as a side dish for chicken porridge. Or sometimes we would eat them as a snack with a vinegar and chopped chili pepper sauce.
In China, people would also have youtiao as a side dish for porridge. But what I loved the most was that youtiao would be eaten for breakfast as an accompaniment for warm soy milk.
Soy milk (especially warm one) is not readily available in street stalls in Indonesia because we are more accustomed to drinking cow's milk, and I don't see many cakwe vendors either. So I really enjoyed the Chinese way of eating youtiao, and that is one of the things I have missed the most from China.
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