What is a Traditional Chinese Breakfast?

Different yet Tasty, it May Have You Coming Back for More

GET SUM BREAKFAST

Want to see what some Chinese folks scarfing a traditional Chinese breakfast? Then go to Yi Mei Deli (義美) in Los Angeles' Rowland Heights Chinatown's Hong Kong Plaza (香港廣場). Yi Mei Deli is not your typical "deli" in a way that most would know it. And it's definitely not Italian. This is Chinese food, folks.

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I went to Yi Mei Deli with my buddy, Chris, for a hearty breakfast of you-tiao (油條 - fried bread sticks surprisingly similar to Native American Indian fry bread), Shandong shao bing (山東燒餅 - an unleavened sesame seed cake), and dou jiang (豆漿 - fresh soy milk served steaming hot in a bowl).

While there are loads of other goodies you can have as a traditional Chinese breakfast, these three toads of tastiness have been a big hit with our ethnic friends for decades.

More on these three classic tasties now...

YOU-TIAO - GODZILLA WOULD HAVE LOVED THEM

Like French fries? Like NatAm Indian fry bread? Then these babies are for you!

Coming at your face steaming hot and sometimes nearly as long as a full yard, these bread-dogs may seem vicious, but they're really all bark and no bite. While you-tiao (pronounced yo tee-ow) start off as thick strips of rolled wheat dough, they are fried in hot oil and can expand to thousands of times their original size (just kidding!). But they do get big when being fried. You get the idea!

Before being fried, you-tiao dough rolls are usually folded in half with the two halves gently pressed together. During the Big Fry the halves hold hands loosely. Later when they arrive on your table, you can tear them apart like Godzilla splitting open a passenger train - to happily reveal the tasty softer parts cringing inside.

TIP: Because the you-tiao are fried in oil, they can be pretty greasy. Keep an eye out for the less greasy Chinese breakfast joints that are careful to drip off any excess oil. Even better, see if they fry their stuff in a light oil so dang hot that the liquid literally flies off the food as it's removed from the fryer.

Next stop: Dry Mouth City.