3. Hum Chim Peng (Cantonese) + Youtiao (Mandarin) / yau char kwai (Cantonese) / u char kway (Hokkien) / e kya kway (Myanmar) / quai (Vietnam) / guozi

Stall selling quai in Vietnam.

Source: noodlepie.typepad.com

Youtiao - before and after look.

Source: foodcrazee.blogspot.com

You can find youtiao, not only in China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong, but everywhere in Southeast Asia countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, and Vietnam. It is a golden brown, deep fried strip of dough. It is usually served as breakfast in Chinese society. It tastes crispy outside and soft inside, lightly salted and can be torn into two. In Southeast Asia countries, it is normally eaten together with hot unsweetened soy milk and kopi “o” or black coffee with sugar. In Myanmar, it is served with Indian tea. Sometimes, it also served as an accompaniment for rice congee or porridge, tau suan or green bean porridge, or bak kut teh. Recently, in Malaysia and Singapore, there is a new way of eating it by dipping it to mayonnaise.

Geylang (Singapore) long youtiao.

Source: kuanyilogy.blogspot.com

Youtiao with tau suan vs youtiao with soy milk.

Source: ieatishootipost.blogspot.com / kuanyilogy.blogspot.com

There is a story behind the name for youtiao in Cantonese or Hokkien. Yau char kwai or u char kway literally means “oil-fried ghost”. It was used as a tool to express contempt to a corrupt official called Qin Kuai and his wife, who are accused to have framed the general Yue Fei in Song Dynasty. Thus, you can always find that the youtiao is always made as 2 roll of dough joined along the middle to represent this traitorous couple.

In Malaysia and Singapore, when you go to a stall which sells youtiao, you may usually find that there is another food called hum chim peng. It is a Chinese deep-fried bun-like pastry. It is made of flour with some five spice powder. Most of the time, it is sprinkled with sesame seeds and it will puff up upon frying, like the Indian poori. There are mainly 3 types of hum chim peng including the salty one, the one with glutinous rice, and the one with red bean paste. You can also find a food called Bánh Tiêu or hollow doughnuts in Vietnam which is similar to hum chim peng. It is a light, round, slightly sweet, and with a hollow center.

Hum chim peng in Malaysia vs Bánh Tiêu in Vietnam.

Source: globalmalaysians.com / pwnf.blogspot.com