unique breakfast

 

In China, the unique breakfast they have there is this simple, yet delicious, breakfast consists of warm soy milk “豆浆(dòujiāng)” accompanied by crispy, deep-fried twisted dough sticks “油条(yóutiáo)”.

Each person has their own unique story, so does the food.

During the Song Dynasty in China, there was a famous and well-respected General, Yue Fei, who had been known for his patriotism. His mother also tattooed Four words on his back, “Jing Zhong Bao Guo”, which means “serving the country with the utmost loyalty”. Yue Fei had fought hard to protect the kingdom, against the outer invasions particularly the Jin Dynasty. However, the Prime Minister of the time, Qin Gui had unusually resented Yue Fei for some, or no reason. With the manipulative influence from his wife and to gain real power, he accused Yue Fei of a crime “Mo Xu You” (which means: could be or could be not guilty, but not necessarily innocent) and executed him.

Although frustrated, there was nothing the public civilians could do. To relieve his anger, a baker thought of an idea of making bread in the shape of 2 people twisted together and deep-fried it in burning hot oil. The shape was to signify Qin Gui and his wife, and this fried bread was named “You Zha Gui”, meaning deep-fried ghost, because the word ghost in Chinese is pronounced the same as “Gui” in Qin Gui’s name; and in the public’s eye, they surely were as bad as ghosts. Symbolically, they had burnt the Qin Gui couple in hot oil and eaten them up.

Through the years, You Zha Gui has been given another name as You Tiao (plainly means deep-fried breadstick), and its shape has also been much simplified to what we see today. This Chinese deep-fried breadstick stuck in pairs, is such a common breakfast for hundreds of years, which is often eaten with Dou Jiang in the morning.

This tasty traditional breakfast is paired together for a reason. The creamy soy milk warms the belly and the crunchy dough sticks give a happy feeling of being full. Many feel that is it the perfect breakfast combination

Ingredients for doujiang:

350g non GMO soya beans

3 liters water

2 – 3 pandan leaves (optional)

Sugar, to sweetened 

Steps for doujiang:

Rinse & soak the soya beans

Blend with water until it become a fine purée 

Mix with the knotted pandan leaves for 40-60 minutes 

Strain with muslin cloth

Squeeze the remaining soya bean milk

Pour the soya bean milk into the pot and boil until it's ready

Ingredients for youtiao:

400 g all-purpose flour/plain flour, 2 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 tablespoon neutral cooking oil

Steps for youtiao:

Make the dough

Rest the dough

Shape the sticks

Fry the sticks

Video demonstration:

tutorial video

https://youtu.be/wkVQkwnzLCw?si=573SSo3Va8J8cSGo

(rasyid 32/naura26)