breakfast in China
Chang fen: A Chinese breakfast staple
This morning I returned to my local laoban to do a Chinese food video about breakfast. Today we had chang fen (肠粉) which is a common breakfast dish made with rice paste, eggs, vegetables, and ground pork covered in a pork fat broth with soy sauce and chopped garlic. I probably have chang fen at least once a week living here. I find it to be a relatively healthy option – as this is steamed and not fried, and I enjoy eating as healthy as I can.
To make chang fen, a large multi-layer steam rack is used. Generally they start by pouring rice paste and covering the tray with it, and then adding ground pork, a few vegetables and cracking an egg or two on top. The mixture is stirred around and sent into the steamer for less than a minute. When it comes out, it is scraped off and set onto a serving plate.
When it comes out, it is quite a pretty sight to behold. The taste of chang fen is interesting to say the least. The texture is sort of a thin jello-ey texture that without the sauce is not exactly bursting with flavor. Rice paste is of course made of white rice, and as we all know white rice has a fairly brand and neutral flavor. However when it is coupled with vegetables, meat, and a nice pork broth with garlic and some chili sauce on top, the flavors go a million ways! The pork broth gives a rich decadent flavor especially when you get those chunks of ground pork in the bite. Grasping some chopped chilis with your chopsticks in a bite adds a spicy aspect to this dish as well.
I also blogged about chang fen back in April, you can see that post here: Chang fen: A cheap, delicious and exotic breakfast in China. Don’t forget to check out the video from this morning’s breakfast which includes video of the cooking process and tasting, from my YouTube channel! Please like/subscribe if you enjoy the content!
Zhou: A traditional Chinese porridge breakfast.
This morning I went down with my girlfriend to yet another local laoban at Dafen. For breakfast we had pi dan shou rou zhou (皮蛋瘦肉粥), which is a delicious rice porridge with pi dan (The century old egg which I have mentioned many times in this blog), a few assorted vegetables and some pork.
Not only do I absolutely love this porridge, it’s very cheap! At only 3 RMB a bowl, that is about a half dollar US. One bowl is also very filling. This is a very traditional dish that many people eat in Chinese villages throughout the country. This specific zhou however is a little different – many villages will just do a plain rice porridge with nothing else. This one is a bit of a “designer” porridge as it has pi dan and meat and vegetables added.
Let’s talk about the taste of pi dan shou rou zhou. There are a couple words I can use to describe it. Light, creamy, smooth and delicious! Normal rice porridge is well, let’s face it, kind of a dull meal, but Chinese people generally would eat it with a side mantou, 馒头, which is kind of a bread-roll, and vegetables. I mentioned before this is like designer zhou, sort of a fancy kind. The addition of the pi dan is excellent because it gives the zhou a really creamy and delicious flavor and texture. My personal favorite way to eat it is by adding some lajiao to it:
Overall, zhou is one of those classic Chinese breakfasts that is filling, cheap, and delicious. That’s about it for today’s entry but I’d like to leave you with Episode 7 of my cooking show: Lemon Lajiao Chicken!
What’s for breakfast in China?
Good morning guys. It’s about 10:47AM in China here, which means back home in California it’s 7:46pm. I woke up just awhile ago and had to make a trip to Wal Mart, so I grabbed some breakfast on the way. In China, it’s very common for people to work long hours and thus have less time to cook. So often times, people will take their breakfast togo, which is what I did this morning. As I got outside my apartment building (I live on the 21st floor) I stopped at one of the storefronts about 50 steps from my door. I picked up 4 niurou baozi. Before you become afraid of the name let me explain: “beef stuffed bun” is the literal translation here. Baozi, or 包子, is referring to a very common stuffed and steamed bun that many Chinese people eat for breakfast. The baozi can have pork, beef, vegetables, sweet potato, and a variety of other ingredients. My favorite buns would have to be beef buns, and of course barbecued pork buns which is a very famous Chinese food. I purchased 4 buns at 1.5 ￥ each, (~$.25 USD) threw them in a bag and took them daobao (to-go!) I went to Wal Mart to buy a few ingredients for a dish that I plan on cooking later this afternoon for a new addition to The Laowai Chef.
As I proceeded to make my way over to Wal Mart I bit into one of the beef buns. Very delicious beef bun and this store front is one of the few that actually does beef buns. Most small breakfast fronts do a variety of buns but usually do not have beef. I don’t know what the quality of the meat is like, probably not great in reality but the taste is phenomenal. A very savory and salty blend, nice texture, and very filling. Just 2 small buns was enough for my breakfast today, that’s about ~$.50! Have a look and check out that inner deliciousness!
That’s it for now but I’d like to also leave you with a link to episode 2 of my cooking show: French Bread Pizza! Take a look at the final product! 😀
Ian in China - Living in China content, Asia food and travel videos! 