Your Chinese breakfast

[skylee]

I love 雞蛋灌餅, but I've only had it once at Chongwen Men Market.

When I am not travelling my breakfast is a cup of coffee plus a box of soy milk (this is optional though).

[fireball9261]

bacon and eggs

Yup, those are the modern Chinese breakfast. I like sausage (the western kind) and eggs better. Sometimes, I have zhou with my sausage and eggs.

[fireball9261]

Anybody go for the sweet 豆腐脑 and peanuts? I am having one right now.

[fireball9261]

You can use lots of yellow soy bean sprouts (with large soy bean head, not the new sprouts) to boil in water for a long time (1 hour +) and add a bit of salt to make the base broth to add in to any vegetarian dishes or dim sums. It’s definitely OK for strict vegetarians and Buddhists who do not eat onions and garlic. It's as tasty as Chicken broth in the vegetarian form.

For the vegetarian dumplings, you can use carrots, bamboo shoot, (onion and green onion and ginger and garlic if you are not a Buddhist) pressed tofu (豆腐乾 - 5 spices or plain ones), dried or fresh shitake mushroom, and wood ear fungus (木耳). If you are a Buddhist, you might not be able to use the 5 spices. You need to soak the dried shitake mushrooms and wood ear fungus before using. Cut everything into strips or small chunks (not too small, but not too large to give some good texture). Use hot oil to stir fry carrots with onions, green onions, garlic and ginger with some soy bean sprout broth -- If you are a Buddhist, don't use onions, green onions, and garlic, but I am not sure about ginger. My friend's grand uncle is a master level Buddhist monk from Wu Tai Shan and he eats ginger, so I think it should be OK. Put very little bit of sugar in the carrot and some salt. Take it up and put it aside. Use a little hot oil to stir fry pressed tofu, shitake mushroom, wood ear fungus, bamboo shoot with a little soy bean broth. Maybe add a little soy sauce to give a different layer of flavor. When done, mix the two stir fries together. Use this for the inside of your dumpling style of dim sum. You can make wontons, jiaozi, shumai, and others. After you wrapped them in the flour skins, you can steam them. For the wontons and jiaozi, you can boil or fry them also.

There are also the vegetarian spring rolls. Use the above ingredients. Don't use the pressed Tofu, but add the new bean sprouts (not the fully grown ones). Everything should be cut in small thin strips. The bean sprouts needs to be very lightly stir fried separately with only a little salt for seasoning. Mix everything together. Wrap them in the spring roll skin. If you use the old fashioned spring roll skins (that are cooked already, not the dough kind), you can just wrap them and eat them like that (or with a bit of plum sauce, or hoisan sauce, or sweet flour sauce depends on which province you are in). Otherwise, deep fry the wrapped spring rolls until golden brown.

If you use the spring roll ingredients to be wrapped in the tofu skin, sprinkle on a bit of the bean sprout broth and salt for seasoning the tofu skin and steam them, you will get the Cantonese xian zhu2 juan3 (鮮竹捲) vegetarian style.

There is also the vegetarian sweet rice dish and the sweet rice shumai with 4 colors. First, you make the stir fried vegetarian sweet rice like you make a stir fried rice. Wherever you need a more complex seasoning, you can use the bean sprout broth. Use a little dark soy sauce to add color to the sweet rice. If you want to use it for the shumai, here are the next steps: Wrap the sweet rice in rounded wonton (you might need to cut it yourself) or dumpling skins – leave the top open like shumai and make into 4 open pockets on top of the sweet rice. In those 4 pockets, put in chopped and cooked carrots in one, cooked peas in one, cooked chopped shitake mushroom in one, and cooked chopped bamboo shoot in one. Steam the shumai for 8 minutes. The peas, carrots, shitake mushrooms, and bamboo shoots should be cooked (stir fried to make it rich tasting, or boiled to make it leaner) with a little bit different seasonings. Carrots should be a bit sweet. Peas should show the pea flavor. Shitake mushroom might use a bit of broth and soy sauce. The bamboo shoot should use broth and salt to keep it different from the shitake mushroom but still tasty.

Also, you can use the bean sprout broth to cook the Cantonese style rice congee. Just add your favorite vegetables. In addition, there should be recipes for the Shanghainese style vegetarian kao3 fu (烤麩) and vegetarian chicken (素雞 su4 ji). Both could be seasoned with the bean sprout broth without using the msg.

The key is to minimize the seasoning and use the vegetables’ own flavors to flavor the food. I hope our vegetarian friends could experiment with these and enjoy some of these Chinese foods. I have cooked for my friend’s grand uncle (the monk) for a few times, and he liked my vegetarian food very much.

[shibole]

I would tend to eat noodles like the ones with sesame oil, but I really like 油餅. Unfortunately my wife complains if I eat those and tells me they are too unhealthy.

[fireball9261]

shibole, how about those 油餅 with lots of vegetables in it. I had some before, but I am not sure where you can get them in China. I think Beijing or Northern areas probably have them. They should be more healthy than just plain 油餅.

[shibole]

shibole, how about those 油餅 with lots of vegetables in it.

She just doesn't think anything deep fried is good for you regardless of what else it has in it.

[owshawng]

What about han bao dan? Te Taiwanese pork burger from mei y mei? One of those with some turnip cake and iced tea is always a great way to start the day.

[fireball9261]

She just doesn't think anything deep fried is good for you regardless of what else it has in it.

Well, shibole, you just have to think that you have a good wife who cares about your health.

[shibole]

Yea, but sometimes I would just prefer to die a happy death with my 油餅.

[fireball9261]

I fully agree with you, shibole.

I always use lean pork to make fried rice for my American husband. He loves Chinese sausages, and he asked me why wouldn't I use Chinese sausages for my fried rice for him like my friend, Margie? I told him Margie is not his wife, I am! I don't want him to have heart problems or high blood pressure. Therefore, I don't use Chinese sausages in most of my cooking. I use it once a year for my Chinese sweet rice stuffing during Thanksgiving holiday.

[Madot]

:cry:I spent 3 months in Beijing last year and ever since have been missing my daily Chinese breakfast. I am HANGING OUT for the egg pancakes from the little cart between the XiJiao Hotel and the BLCU campus. The very first truly communicative sentence I learned was: Bu yao cai! (In order to keep the lady from poisoning the thing with frresh coriander which I loathe). Please, SOMEONE, ANYONE, how do you make those pancakes??? How do you do that clever little thing with the kuaizi so the egg doesn't run off???

I guess it's time to go back...

Mado

[owshawng]

I would love to find a hot chinese breakfast in New Jersey or Manhattan. I've only found bakeries so far.

[Ge-lin]

燒餅加蛋 and a 豆漿

good stuff

[zozzen]

I can't see anyone mentioning the Shanghaiese breakfast. Did i miss it?Their sticky rice roll and sour-and-spicy sour is my all time favorite. Though i haven't tried it for long time for a concern of calories, I still love it very much.

Dim sum is what i love too, but i only take them as a breakfast once or twice in a year. It's too time consuming to take it.

The most common breakfast to me these days is corn flakes with milk and conjee.

[bhchao]

I would love to find a hot chinese breakfast in New Jersey or Manhattan. I've only found bakeries so far.

There are stores and restaurants in Flushing that serve hot Chinese breakfast. I just had 豆浆, 油条, and 蔥油餅 yesterday in Flushing not far from intersection of Roosevelt/Main. There's also a Taiwanese restaurant on Prince Street in Flushing where you can find these items.

I would avoid Manhattan Chinatown for these delicacies.

[cdn_in_bj]

Specifically, 鸡蛋饼.

Just found out today that my beloved 鸡蛋饼 has gone up in price yet again, to Y2.5 It's only been a few months since the last price increase. The lady said that everything has gone up in price lately - eggs, flour, cooking oil...

If only my salary would go up just as fast!

[leather_strap]

虽然我在山东发现了酸辣汤是最好的早餐，可听说它本来是南部来的。你觉得呢？这种汤在台湾很受欢迎的吗？

[fireball9261]

虽然我在山东发现了酸辣汤是最好的早餐，可听说它本来是南部来的。你觉得呢？这种汤在台湾很受欢迎的吗？

Yes! I used to have hot and sour soup 酸辣汤 and pot stickers 鍋貼 in Taipei, but I don't have them for breakfast.