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Real Chinese Food Breakfast (1) (Video)

What food Chinese really eat in China? Here are some examples of Chinese food breakfast that we have in Hunan China. Scroll down for video.

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For traditional Chinese food breakfast, we can have rice congee (rice porridge), bean congee, bean curd, soy milk or noodle soups, plus some wheaten food (flour-made food), such as steamed buns, dumplings, fried dough sticks or flat bread.

I put all photos in three pages, you can click the link to read other posts here or at end of this page. Chinese Breakfast (2), Chinese Breakfast (3).

1. Rice Congee (Zhou 粥，Xi Fan 稀饭)

My favorite breakfast in summer is the combination of rice congee and fried dough sticks.

I guess this links to my childhood memory, when I was given a bowl of sweet rice congee and one fried dough stick, Chinese called You Tiao. One spoon congee, followed by one bite of fried dough stick, you can even hear the cracking sound from the crispy stick before it gets melted by the soft rice. Yummy :)

In my home, my parents usually cook rice congee with corns and beans using the pressure cooker, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes till the rice is completely softened.

In the local restaurant or street food stall, you most likely see the plain rice congee.

There is also red rice congee, usually slightly sweet, tastes good too. I saw some Chinese restaurants in the UK provide this type of congee for free at the end of the mean, as the extra treat for the guests. They call it "Tang Shui" (meaning sweet water).

2. Green Bean Congee (Lu Dou Zhou, 绿豆粥）

Another popular Chinese food breakfast is the green bean congee, sweet, with a lovely sandy texture. It is usually sold in a cup so that people can easily grab one from the street shops on their way to work.

A cup of iced green bean congee is always popular in the summer, not just for the breakfast. This is because that in China green bean is considered as the “cool” food, which can help you to cool down in the summer.

3. Tofu Bean Curd

Tofu is very common as the Chinese daily food and there are plenty of choices for tofu made food. For breakfast, we can have the soft bean curd, fermented bean curd and soy milk.

The soft bean curd (Dou Fu Nao, 豆腐脑） in this picture has the texture similar as custard or steamed egg, which can go with chilli bean paste (as in picture) or sugar. You can serve this with food like steamed buns or fried dough sticks.

The fermented tofu (Dou Fu Ru, 豆腐乳) is cubic shaped and tastes salty. It is usually eaten with the steamed buns or rice, similar as the spread or paste in the West. You will see the fermented bean curd sold in the glass jar at local Chinese food supermarket. You may also check my other post for types of tofu in China.

4. Rice Noodle Soup (Mi Fen, 米粉）

Rice noodle soup is a typical breakfast in the south of China such as in Hunan and Guizhou.

My parents make rice noodle as breakfast at home. It takes only few minutes to filter the rice noodle through the boiling water then put them back to the bowl filled with stock.

You can make the noodle sauce with beef, pork, rib or spicy vegetable pickles.

In Hunan, many people have their rice noodle at the street food stall before they go to work. The picture shows a Hunan local food shop selling the rice noodle soup.

The price is depended on the weight of rice noodle and sauce you select. For example, 100g rice noodle soup with the meat sauce may cost about 5RMB (about GBP 5p).

5. Sweet Wine Rice (Tian Jiu, 甜酒）

This is the sweet rice wine bought from the market. It smells little bit like beer, but sweet. Depending on how long it is preserved, rice wine may have a strong alcohol taste.

For breakfast, we usually take several spoons to make a sweet rice wine egg soup. It also goes well with the fried dough stick.

You can watch the video I made from all Chinese breakfast photos. I post video every month, to get more videos for Chinese cooking videos and travel in China, please subscribe to my Youtube Channel.