A Taste of Chinese Breakfast 中国早餐

For Chinese learners, it is very interesting to know about the different meanings between the English word “breakfast” and the Chinese characters “早餐 zaocan” for breakfast. The English word “breakfast”: “Break” — start to eat after a whole night’s food break; “Fast” indicates that the diners are quite hungry so they want to eat fast.

However, the Chinese characters for “早餐 zaocan” /breakfast, “早 zao”  means “moring or early”, you see the upper part of the character is “SUNRISE”, and “餐 can” means “eat, dine or meal” because the lower part of this character is “FOOD”. Different from the English religious custom (food-break), Chinese people just focus on the time for meals. Three meals a day, we have:

早餐 zao-can, morning meal (breakfast)

中餐 zhong-can, midday-meal (lunch)

晚餐 wan-can, evening-meal (dinner or supper)
Common Chinese breakfast:

面条 miantiao, noodles 

包子 baozi, steamed stuffed bun
小笼包 xiao long bao, steamed stuffed bun by small bamboo food steamer 
馒头 mantou, streamed bun;steamed bread
油饼 youbing, deep-fried dough cake
油条 youtiao, deep twisted dough sticks
蒸饺 zheng jiao, steamed dumpling   　　
饺子 jiaozi, boiled dumpling
馄饨 wonton; ravioli soup
粥；稀饭zhou / xifan, porridge, rice gruel
豆浆 doujiang, soya-bean milk

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Generally speaking, the typical Chinese breakfast varies from region to region. Chinese breakfasts vary greatly between different regions. Except for Hong Kong, Western types of breakfasts or their derivatives are rarely eaten. In Northern China breakfast fare typically includes huājuǎn, mántou (steamed breads), shāobǐng (unleavened pocket-bread with sesame), bāozi (steamed buns with meat or vegetable stuffing), with Dòunǎi or dòujiāng (soy milk) or tea served in Chinese style as beverages.

Let’s begin with the Cantonese-style breakfast — Yam Cha, or Dim Sum which are popular in Chinatowns around the world.

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The Cantonese-style breakfast — Yam cha 喝茶, literally, drink tea, is what Guangdong and HK people in particular do if they go out for breakfast in the early morning. But if a Cantonese friend invites you out to yam cha, allow plenty of time to enjoy it since it’s not to be rushed. Usually, it is a great way to spend a Saturday or Sunday morning.

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Another thing worth mentioning is that leaves, no matter it’s Lotus leaves, banana leaves or maybe some other types, are used to wrap things in and steam or boiled for a very special flavour. A prime expression for it can be found in a kind of steamed fried rice with chicken wrapped in lotus leaf - fresh fragrance of lotus leaf.

Besides, there are also other savoury ones. If you have a sweet tooth, then the water chestnut cake, being one of the most famous, coconut snowballs, and thousand-layer sweet cake with egg topping are your best choices.

In addition to dim sum, there’s lots of different types of tea in China - black tea, green tea, oolong tea, chrysanthamum tea, pu’er tea etc etc, and the green tea with dim sum is a wonderful combination to help the digestion.

However, Chinese-styled breakfast is much more than tea and dim sum. Noodles seem to be very common breakfast as well.

People in the North tend to eat more wheat - for instance, steamed stuffed buns, deep-fried twisted dough stick, and various other steamed or fried snacks made from wheat flour. Youtiao (ad lib) and baozi are just two famous breadfast snacks in this regard.

As for Chinese breakfast, almost everything is cooked, and also hot. Usually, milk is boiled for drinking in the morning and everything is reheated in the microwaves before they are served as breakfast.