Excited
When I came across a blog article with the title above, I knew immediately what the author was referring to. The food known in Mandarin Chinese as yóu tiáo 油條, but which in Taiwanese goes by the name 油炸粿, is basically a fried stick of dough, similar to a cruller, but puffy, rather than cake-like. The traditional way of eating it is to wrap it inside a shao bing 燒餅 (a sesame-coated flatbread). I recognized the topic, because it was one of my mom’s favorite foods, and one she had a difficult time finding in New York during the seventies and eighties. When we finally found restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area that offered “shao bing yóu tiáo”, my mom liked to frequent them on weekend mornings, and take myself or one of my sisters.
I miss the days when my mom would get that twinkle in her eye and say we’re going out for breakfast, and we’d end up in Cupertino, at either a diner-like Chinese restaurant (A&J) or at Marina Foods, where she’d order hot soy milk (豆漿 dòu jiāng) and “shao bing yóu tiáo” and insist we eat it the way you’re supposed to, one wrapped inside the other. She’d order the sweetened soy milk, as would I, but my dad always got the salty soy milk (the choice of purists).
For me, it’s the mix of textures, the crunchy yóu tiáo with the soft shao bing that makes this breakfast dish an attraction, and one I haven’t had recently. The blog article is a good reminder that it’s time to make another weekend morning trip to Cupertino.
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According to a Taiwanese show I've recently watched, this habit of wrapping YouTiao inside of a ShaoBing is not done in at least North Eastern China. They are purchased and eaten separately. They are doing it in mainland NOW it's due to the popularity of YongHe Doujiang (YongHe, a Taipei suburb, is famous for their rows of soy milk breakfast shops) who brought the Taiwanese style to the mainland.
It was done this way because these foods were native to Northern China, and when the KMT escaped to Taiwan, many of the mainland soldiers start to sell all these non-native Taiwanese foods together in the same stalls. Sooner or later Soy Milk, ShaoBing + YouTiao, and other items like Leek Cake became staple b-fast items for all Taiwanese and eaten together harmoniously - just part of Taiwanese ingenuity.
According to a Taiwanese show I've recently watched, this habit of wrapping YouTiao inside of a ShaoBing is not done in at least North Eastern China. They are purchased and eaten separately. They are doing it in mainland NOW it's due to the popularity of YongHe Doujiang (YongHe, a Taipei suburb, is famous for their rows of soy milk breakfast shops) who brought the Taiwanese style to the mainland.
It was done this way because these foods were native to Northern China, and when the KMT escaped to Taiwan, many of the mainland soldiers start to sell all these non-native Taiwanese foods together in the same stalls. Sooner or later Soy Milk, ShaoBing + YouTiao, and other items like Leek Cake became staple b-fast items for all Taiwanese and eaten together harmoniously - just part of Taiwanese ingenuity.
Omg... your post made me so hungry. We couldn't get this stuff where I grew up, but one vacation we went to visit my parents' friends in Cupertino where they bought this and the soy milk and other Taiwanese goodies for us for breakfast every morning, and I always wished we lived there. Dang it. I had a deprived childhood.
Omg... your post made me so hungry. We couldn't get this stuff where I grew up, but one vacation we went to visit my parents' friends in Cupertino where they bought this and the soy milk and other Taiwanese goodies for us for breakfast every morning, and I always wished we lived there. Dang it. I had a deprived childhood.
Oh, this is one of my very favorite breakfasts (all three aspects of it, although the dou jiang and you tiao alone would do if there was no shao bing available)! It is soooo good and brings back very good memories, since our entire family loved this and we were always so excited when we got to have it! It was one of the best parts about visiting Taiwan, was having this for bkfst!
I'm lucky my mom knows how to make this, since we live in an area where this was not available when I was a kid (I believe that now you can buy it at the chinese store refrigerated). I remember when I was a kid and my mom was, "experimenting" on recipes. My siblings and I loved being her guinea pigs to try her different recipes, she finally figured out that peanut oil was the best oil to use to fry the you tiao. She even made her own soy milk too! Yum, now you've got me craving for it, too bad I have no way to get a hold of this stuff right now (we live in the middle of the boonies). I really need to ask my mom for the recipe.
Oh, this is one of my very favorite breakfasts (all three aspects of it, although the dou jiang and you tiao alone would do if there was no shao bing available)! It is soooo good and brings back very good memories, since our entire family loved this and we were always so excited when we got to have it! It was one of the best parts about visiting Taiwan, was having this for bkfst!
I'm lucky my mom knows how to make this, since we live in an area where this was not available when I was a kid (I believe that now you can buy it at the chinese store refrigerated). I remember when I was a kid and my mom was, "experimenting" on recipes. My siblings and I loved being her guinea pigs to try her different recipes, she finally figured out that peanut oil was the best oil to use to fry the you tiao. She even made her own soy milk too! Yum, now you've got me craving for it, too bad I have no way to get a hold of this stuff right now (we live in the middle of the boonies). I really need to ask my mom for the recipe.
Love sweet dou jiang and you tiao but was never a fan of shao bing. The you tiao also goes quite well dunked in ma la hotpot. Yum!
Love sweet dou jiang and you tiao but was never a fan of shao bing. The you tiao also goes quite well dunked in ma la hotpot. Yum!
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