Chinese Fast Food Breakfast

I'm typing this, and I'm already giggling about how envious my sister is going to be when she sees what I had for breakfast!

We were lucky to have a very "international" childhood. We spent a lot of time in Costa Rica, Taiwan, and the Philippines. I remember being a kid and going out for the day with my sister and my mom in Taipei, but before we started running whatever errands had to be run, my mom would take us out for breakfast. My favorite was a cup of hot soy milk, sweetened of course, and this thing that sort of looks like a long crueller. It is basically bread shaped like a long stick and then fried so it's crunchy on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside. It is called a "yu tiao" which (sort of) translates into "fried strips." I guess you could call this the Chinese version of a doughnut. YUM!

All I did (because I was lazy) was heat soy milk in the microwave and heat these pre-made yu tiao (from the Chinese store). Mom used to make soy milk, so I'll see if I can get a recipe from her and post it later. I was looking for a recipe for the yu tiao but all I found was:

1 loaf frozen bread dough

oil for frying

- Thaw dough overnight

-Cut dough into 24 strips

-Allow the dough to sit at room temp for an hour

-Heat oil for frying

-Fry each strip till golden brown and crispy

I'm all for making things at home, but I'd rather get someone else to do my frying for me - big pots of hot oil scare me. I picked up a 3-pack of yu-tiao for less than $2.00 at the store. The reheating instructions were:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Enjoy!

So anyway, this is what Chinese people eat for breakfast :)