Enjoying Breakfast-The First Meal of the Day

4 min read

As a Chinese saying goes，”The whole year’s work depends on a good start in spring，while a day’s opportunities depend on the dawn.”Of the three meals in a day，breakfast is the first meal upon awakening and has been much valued by all people throughout the ages.

Breakfast in different regions varies greatly both in content and form.Moreover，the customs of having breakfast are poles apart，too.Nevertheless，two kinds of food-soybean milk and deep-fried dough twists-accompany each other all the time.Soybean milk，either salty or sweet，is the traditional daily food of the Chinese people.Having warm soybean milk to go with fresh，golden，deep-fried dough twists，one solid and the other liquid，is indeed a treat.They are both simple and delicious.

Jellied bean curd can be found almost everywhere in the country.The pure，white jellied bean curd is fine and smooth, congealed but not solid, tender but not too slack. The condiments served in Beijing jellied bean curd include soy sauce bean curd juice, shrimp sauce, Chinese chive blossoms, sesame paste and pepper oil.

The thick gravy that goes with this bean curd is braised with mushrooms and pork slices. The condiments that are served in the bean curd special to Qianxian County, Shaanxi Province, comprise ginger, minced garlic, soysauce, five-flavored vinegar and ground pepper oil, which combined make the bean curd pungently delicious.

In Suzhou jellied bean curd over a dozen condiments are added, such as dried shrimp, laver, kelp, pickled mustard slices, pepper paste, and, finally, shredded onion and sesame oil. Watching the process of making Suzhou jellied bean curd alone is also a treat. Dumpling soup (also known as wonton), made with thinner wrappings and lesser but more exquisite stuffing, is the variation of jiaozi, yet it is irregularly shaped and smaller. Both jiaozi and dumpling soup are equally delicious. Dumpling soup is known as wonton in Guangdong, bianshi in Fujian, chaoshou in Sichuan and qingtang in Jiangxi. Dumpling soup can be seen on breakfast tables everywhere in China. Douzhi, formally known as fermented drink made from water used in grinding green beans, appears light green and tastes sour and bitter. But the elderly people from Beijing love it, and will eat it with greater relish when they eat it with crispy, fried dough rings. Chaogan, too, is a traditional light Beijing breakfast. It is a thick and remarkable stew made of pig liver, intestines, yellow bean paste, broth, Chinese onion, minced ginger and garlic and starch. On early Beijing mornings, the elderly can always be seen holding bird cages and looking for douzhi, and taxi drivers can also be seen, chatting about international affairs while enjoying their chaogan.

Fried Chinese dough and egg filling wrapped and rolled in the thin, green bean flour pancake is a contribution to breakfast from the Tianjin people.

Northern people call deep-fried dough twists “fried Chinese doughnuts.”A spoonful of green bean flour paste is spread onto a flat-bottomed pan, an egg is added and this mixture is evened out; chopped onions are spread over this and the pancake is turned upside down quickly.

Then a coating of sweet sauce made of fermented flour and chili paste is applied. Chopped coriander and sesame is spread on and a fried Chinese doughnut is placed on it, wrapped and rolled. It is done.A nice day starts with such a warm, delicious food as breakfast.

Going south leads to Yangzhou along the Yangtze River, where people have more leisurely breakfasts. Allfamily members pick a teahouse along an aged lane, sit in a circle at a table, make a pot of green tea produced in the Taihu Lake area and order a dish of cooked, shredded bean curd and seven to eight baskets of delicacies.

Steamed dumplings and stuffed steamed buns send forth a fragrant aroma; steamed dumplings with “shepherd’s purse”stuffing with the dough trimmed at the top are green and translucent, and the wrappings of the steamed stuffed buns filled with the gravy of crab eggs and digestive parts are thin and delicate. The family enjoysthe delicacies, along with vinegar, minced ginger and the cooked, shredded bean curd with fragrant tea, discussing the past and present in leisurely fashion.

Going further south leads to Guangdong, where breakfast lasts a much longer time, becomes a way to appreciate leisure and embraces having drink and food,as well as entertainment. In Guangdong, people call breakfast “morning tea,”and drinking tea is also called “enjoying tea.”Morning tea in Guangdong is indeed considered a treat. Morning tea begins at 4 a.m. and lasts till noon. Teahouses are packed during this time.

On holidays, teahouse aficionados have to line in queues and wait for seats. Morning tea includes not only tea but also different porridges, dishes, steamed food and other treats. The types of porridge include purple millet, millet with a fragrant flavor, millet with preserved duck egg, and with fish slices. All this porridge can be either salty or sweet according to the customers’ desires. The dishes include chicken feet, chewy beef and pork ribs. The small, stuffed steamed buns in the bamboo steamer taste delicious and not at all oily. Steamed dishes also include transparent dumplings with shrimp filling, and delicate dishes include gold egg-shaped buns. Meat steamed with rice flour consists of skewer-roasted pork, beef, fish-meat slices, shrimp, as well as soy sauce and fermented salty soybeans. Sticky rice with chicken is wrapped with lotus leaves. When it is unrolled, customers are greeted with the aroma of the sticky rice and the salty freshness of the chicken. It’s hard not to be carried away by these delicacies, accompanied by a cup of oolong tea-duringa family reunion, meeting friends, reading newspapers, chatting or just meditating.