Showing posts with label bread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bread. Show all posts

Saturday, August 24, 2013

In China I ate: Cong You Bing (葱油饼)

Ok, Cong You Bing (葱油饼)actually means onion bread, which sounds kinda weird, because the bread isn't made of onions. Actually, Cong You Bing is a round flat dough that is fried with a filling of scallions. There are other versions of this fried dough. The halal restaurant near my school in Jimei would also serve Niu Rou Bing (牛肉饼)- aka dough with beef filling and Huluobo bing (胡萝卜) - aka dough with carrot filling.

My preference was the beef, but the most popular version that one can find everywhere I guess is the scallion. This would be my snack on the way home from the flea market nearby when I didn't know what else to eat. I could always go to the Qingzhen (清圳)- halal - restaurant and order this delicious goody.

Friday, August 2, 2013

In China, I ate: Youtiao (油条)

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.