Friday, February 9, 2018

8 Breakfasts With Ayi


Our energetic, kind, and somewhat-bossy hired grandmother/cook/nurse/Chinese teacher.
Ayi is probably one of the most important people in this whole experience. She does everything: cooks all our food, cleans the house, teaches me Chinese, makes sure we're all in good physical health, scolds the boys so we don't have to, administers medicine if we're not feeling well, and is also just generally a wonderful companion.

The word "ayi" means "aunt" but is used as a polite way to refer to any woman older than you. In a household, it's the word for a woman hired to do basically all of the previously listed activities. "Ayi" can be used as both a common and proper noun. Nobody knows Ayi's real name - she is Ayi.

Of the many delicious foods she makes, here are some of Ayi's breakfasts:

1. Noodles
One of my favourites and impossible to go wrong. Well, no, that’s not true. You could over-cook or under-cook the noodles, but Ayi never does that. Her noodles are right on. Then we add our own spices and sauces to her delicious soup base and voila! A delicious lunch that we get to eat for breakfast!

Except we never have this for lunch. It’s only ever for breakfast, but I’d gladly eat it any time of day.
The lovely aesthetics also add to the marvelous taste, of course.


2. Fried Rice
A classic. Of course. I’ve learned to each it with chopsticks, which was damn difficult and feels strange, but at least I’ve learned. Why would you use chopsticks for such tiny pieces? Dumplings or noodles I understand – but rice? It feels so unnecessary.

The fried rice tastes fine, although I’m less excited about fried rice for breakfast than noodles. The rice contains anything from carrot to peas to corn to hot dog chunks.
You can hardly get more Chinese than this.


3. Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches (Chinese-style)
75% sure this is only a thing because we, the teaching team, are foreign. Yet sometimes it’s nice to have a familiar taste.

Ayi briefly fries each piece of bleached white bread on the wok and places them all on a plate on the table, along with a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly, and one butter knife. We then make a PBJ sandwich with the cold, half-toasted bread and one butter knife. It’s not like and peanut butter sandwiches I’ve had in Canada and those peanut butter and jelly jars may get contaminated, but the jars are so small that we finish them in one meal anyway so it doesn’t really matter.


4. Steamed Buns
Delicious!! Also, you can grab ‘em with your hands and eat them on the go (although Leah’s being very proper in this photo). Some are filled with orange, spicy beef, some are filled with some mushroom and spinach mix, while others with a sweet red bean paste. My personal favourite is the spicy beef. They can kick-start your day with a delicious punch, although sometimes the orange oil starts dripping down your chin.

In my opinion, they’re like the Chinese version of a sandwich. Not so much in taste, but in principle. Nutrition on the inside – a dry, edible base to hang on to.
You can see the spicy, orange oil starting to seep out.


5. Pad Thai
I don’t know why we have Pad Thai for breakfast so often. Is it a Chinese thing as well? Has Pad Thai really become so popular in China that it’s become a common Chinese breakfast food? I mean, there are a lot of Thai restaurants around. Who knows, man.

Having eaten so much delicious, authentic Pad Thai in Thailand, it’s hard to appreciate non-Thai Pad Thai. It doesn’t taste bad – it just doesn’t taste right.


6. Congi… I think?
No. I can’t do it. I genuinely completely dislike it.

It tastes like if you cook rice with way too much water and some red beans for as long as it takes to basically become thick water with some chunks in it. I can’t even taste the occasional vegetables that appear in it.

Another comparison is if you’re in the process of rinsing out a bowl of rice, but halfway through decided “Huh, I think I’ll just drink this with the water in it.”

Of all Ayi’s delicious foods, I cannot say I enjoy this one.
Essentially water, rice, and red beans.


7. Little Dumplings
MY FAVOURITE!!! I can’t even write this without my mouth watering. Ayi’s not even here right now so I’ll need to buy them somewhere (or maybe there’s some in the freezer…?).

They’re tiny morsels of some sort of spiced meat wrapped inside thin, flubbery dough and steamed until they’re fully cooked. The dumpling is then dipped in soy sauce and eaten.

I cannot describe the heavenly pleasure awarded to my mouth upon eating a dumpling. They taste so beautifully satisfying, it’s really impossible not to eat too many. I regularly need to remind myself that other people need to eat too.
The greatest taste on earth.


New Years Special: Rice Balls
Ayi boils a whole bunch of these in two woks – one for meat-filled balls and one for sesame/peanut butter-filled balls. And they are SO. DAMN. DELICIOUS!


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The rice paste on the outside is extremely gooey and difficult to find something to compare to it. It’s the texture of slime, but white and tastes like rice. The trick is to squeeze the whole thing against the roof of your mouth to allow the sweet, flavourful juice to flow out. Then you chomp down the whole thing and chew it all together.
Rice balls: a traditional New Years breakfast.