Wednesday, November 16, 2011

What do Chinese people eat for breakfast?

Question:


I never see breakfast menu in Chinese Restaurants. Can I assume its rice and noodles in the morning, rice and noodles in the daytime and rice and noodles and meat in the evening?

Answer:


China
Chinese cuisine

A typical rice porridge complete with dried minced pork; popular breakfast fare in China.
Breakfasts vary greatly between different regions.

Northern China breakfast fare typically includes steamed buns in different shapes (the stuffed ones are 'Bao Zi (buns)', the plain ones are called 'Man Tou' and those 'rolls' are sometimes called by those people living in a certain region as 'Hua (flower) Juan (roll)', grilled flat, round buns (Shao (grilled) Bing (biscuit)', with dòunǎi or dòujiāng (soya milk) or Chinese tea (served hot and plain, without lemon or milk).

Central and eastern China, typified by Shanghai and the neighbouring Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces, breakfasts are characterised by the combination of both northern and southern dishes. These may be stuffed rice rolls (粢飯) (a bit similar to Japanese sushi but much bigger in size), yóudoùfu fěnsī (油豆腐粉絲) (fried bean curd and cellophane noodles soup); plain rice porridge (粥) served with numerous side dishes, such as salted duck eggs, pickled vegetables, and thousand-year eggs; or sweetened or savoury soya milk served with grilled flat, round buns or yóutiáo (油條).

Southeastern China, such as Fujian, breakfasts consist of rice porridge served with side dishes such as pickled vegetables and thousand-year eggs.
Southern China, represented by Guangdong, breakfasts include rice porridge/congee prepared to a thicker consistency than those sold in Shanghai. Side dishes may or may not be served. Congee can be eaten with fried dough (油條/油炸鬼) or other kinds of deep-fried bakery products (in Chinese style) if it is plain, or not, as far as you like. In many cases, however, congee is prepared with any kind of ingredients as you can or cannot imagine, such as beef slices, shredded salted pork, minced meat, thousand-year eggs, fish, or sliced pig's liver and kidney, meatballs, frog, chicken, or even abalone. You can find not less than one hundred combinations on the menus of such congee restaurants (usually these are food stalls selling mainly congee, noodles and those Chinese deep-fried bakery products alone). Other breakfast items include rice noodle rolls ('Cheong Fun' 腸粉), fried noodles (sauteed noodles with bean sprouts, spring onions, soya sauce and sometimes some shredded pork, or even ham, etc.), jiānbǐng (thin crisp omelettes with fillings folded in), lúobogāo (turnip puddings) and 'rice dumpling' (wrapped in bamboo leaves, usually as a festive food during Dragon Boat Festival at around June every year). For Cantonese, the typical breakfasts (apart from the home-made congees) are dim sum breakfasts. Dim sum is often eaten at Cantonese restaurants, while nowadays, with its growing popularity and the advancement of technology, many different kinds of deep-frozen dim sums are available in supermarket, with most can be ready to serve just by re-heating it in a microwave oven for a few minutes.

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