My Favorite Breakfast Meat: Chinese Sausage
Mantou, sweet steamed bread, and lap cheong, dried pork sausages. Admittedly, the above photo was not taken at breakfast, but I would happily eat this as my first meal of the day.
One of my earliest "happy breakfast" memories is when I was seven years old and visiting my grandfather in Taichung, Taiwan. There were no strips of bacon, nor sausage patties, nor hash browns, which was fine by me because when I was little I disliked pretty much all breakfast food that didn't fall into the "sweet carbohydrate" category. Breakfast sausages in particular were high on my "Do Not Want To Eat This Ever" list—I thought they had a funny, hyper-savory off-taste.
And then my grandfather gave me Chinese sausage and I saw the light. A very porky, fatty, and sweet light. To my tastes buds, those pink, chewy slices were everything typical American breakfast sausage was not: mostly, delicious. This is the sausage I wanted on my breakfast plate.
Who else is a Chinese sausage lover?
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
36 Comments:
Me! I like to put them on top of the uncooked rice in the rice cooker, so that its flavor gets steamed into every grain of rice, or cut them up and put them in fried rice. I also like yun cheung, which is the much darker-colored sausage that often hangs right next to it in the store...it's made of pork liver and has a deeper, less sweet flavor.
By the way, my favorite Chinese breakfast is a big bowl of hot, sweet soy milk (fresh, tastes nothing like the weird stuff they sell in cartons here) with giant crullers called "deep-fried devils" for dipping.
Michele Humes at 8:08AM on 07/28/09
P.S. It occurs to me that these Chinese sausages are more like salami than breakfast sausage, right? Because they've been dried and you don't have to refrigerate them.
Michele Humes at 8:08AM on 07/28/09
i love chinese sausageeee
tastychomps at 8:28AM on 07/28/09
Dried duck liver chinese sausage, steamed and stir fried into anything or just on plain white rice, artery clogging heaven!
threewiseOwls at 8:31AM on 07/28/09
Don't you love how, when you bite into it, there's a satisfying snap?
syannelevovna at 9:06AM on 07/28/09
We always refrigerate ours. By maybe thats just my mom's paranoia.
One of our favorite childhood memories: making chinese sausage buns with my mom. Basically, sausage with a spiral of dough wrapped around it. So wonderful.
engmcmuffin at 9:35AM on 07/28/09
I love them - use them a lot in fried rice. But I do have a Q...
I always end up throwing a few away, because I am never sure how long they last once the package is opened. I keep them refrigerated always, but after a few weeks I get dubious about eating the ones remaining. Do they last pretty much forever even after opened, a few weeks, what?
Dcarl1 at 9:44AM on 07/28/09
I keep mine in the freezer, they snap apart. Actually--i woke up feeling under teh weather and having returned last night from a trip to the Asian grocery. I am currently sitting in front of a bowl of ramen with egg, extra ginger, green onion, lime and a chinese sausage chopped and fried in a little sesame oil, and then added to the warm salty broth.
Heaven.
BananaMonkey at 10:08AM on 07/28/09
Love it! In fried rice, or sliced and mixed with chicken and dried shitake mushrooms and oyster sauce all on rice. Or just fried till the outside goes all golden and then sliced up. Or sliced up and fried then mixed with some vegetable.
Dcarl1: I keep my opened package in a ziploc bag...and also in the fridge and it seems to last forever!
sulin at 10:13AM on 07/28/09
Love it sliced, fried till slightly crisp on the edges and served with sweet red chile sauce for dipping.
kathyvegas at 10:15AM on 07/28/09
i love chinese sausage in pancit. it is absolutely key to the dish.
HappyJack at 10:15AM on 07/28/09
Me, me, me! Though I try to forget the nutrition facts that I accidentally spotted on a package of Chinese sausage. It's frightening enough to make you not want to eat it, haha.
cochon at 10:53AM on 07/28/09
So awesome. I love frying some, slicing it on a bias, and just eating it straight.
Michele, I think you are describing you tiao. Maybe. Never heard them called that though. And yeah, Chinese sausage is not really comparable to breakfast sausage. Except in the context of eating Chinese sausage for breakfast. f
wunami at 11:16AM on 07/28/09
I LOVE these. And I eat them far too frequently.
shoneyjoe at 11:28AM on 07/28/09
I was just wondering what to make for lunch and this nails it, ramen with some chinese sausage and a fried egg. Thanks SE!
iWander at 11:57AM on 07/28/09
i tried the BEST chinese sausage at king phojanakong's umi nom. i don't know how his tastes so much better than mine.. maybe because he sautees and i steam in the rice cooker?
vchan at 12:03PM on 07/28/09
i've noticed that there's a HUGE difference between all the brands. and everytime i go to the store i forget which ones i've tried/liked.
dmarina at 12:06PM on 07/28/09
I love these when they're made into a Thai salad "Yum Kun Chiang." The sausage is sliced thinly and mixed with lime juice, fish sauce, onions, cucumbers, and cilantro.
maystars at 12:09PM on 07/28/09
I do like them in fried rice or the wintery steamed sticky rice with other cured pork and dried shrimps. But just comparing Chinese sausages, I like the darker duck liver one (or is it pork liver) as well. Yummy richness.
YvesPaul at 12:25PM on 07/28/09
I love lop cherng in fried rice, sticky rice, and inside zongzi or loh mai gai (lotus leaf chicken with sticky rice). I tend to like Chinese sausage with dried shrimp with some sort of carb.
manda at 12:33PM on 07/28/09
ME! Chinese sausages are six-inch gems! I'm currently obsessed with making this Chinese Sausage and Cucumber Salad (http://gastronomyblog.com/2009/05/28/chinese-sausage-and-cucumber-salad/. Perfect summertime food, for sure!
Cathy Danh at 12:57PM on 07/28/09
I've only tried one brand so far, and didn't like them that much, they had a weird off/sweet flavor, but I think I'll keep trying brands till I find one I like. I normally love sausage.
Chocolatesa at 1:28PM on 07/28/09
awesome! I'm wondering why I haven't seen chinese sausage in the dishes of the point & pick steam tray places I visit anymore. Was there a price hike?
Been wanting to buy them from the meat markets. Are they already cooked? ...the ones hanging.
chinolam at 1:38PM on 07/28/09
yes! i absolutely love chinese lap cheong (sp? my cantonese is awful). my parents make mantao and then steam these on the side. sometimes my dad will nestle them into a pot of rice before he cooks it so the savory flavors of the sausage mix with the rice.
tungincheek at 2:37PM on 07/28/09
Love the stuff. My Filipino grandmother used to make fried rice with it all the time. I can't see or smell Chinese sausage without thinking of her.
hkydiva at 3:28PM on 07/28/09
easiest dinner ever: rice cooker with chinese sausage (always in my freezer) and bok choy in the steamer basket above rice with dashi and shiitake. the oil seeps down and flavors everything, like people do with chorizo.
propermake at 4:55PM on 07/28/09
Me!! My new fave is a steamed bun that has small pieces of Chinese sausage & green onion mixed in.
alouie at 5:20PM on 07/28/09
ps. my friend's mother, who is Cantonese, uses the name of these sausages (lap cherng) to refer to people in spandex leggings. I can't help but laugh each time I see someone squeezed into leggings now.
shoneyjoe at 5:20PM on 07/28/09
what are the good brands to get? I love them in sticky rice but never know which to purchase when on my own.
fressagirl at 5:22PM on 07/28/09
Where can I find mantou?
danhhoang at 5:27PM on 07/28/09
I'm glad to hear so many people love Chinese sausage! :) Thanks for the great dish suggestions. Just chiming in because...er, I don't really have anything useful to say. I don't know anything about the different brands of sausage; when I see em at the Chinese markets they're just hanging there. Un..branded.
As for mantou, I would think any Chinese bakery has em. I wouldn't know where to get them aside from Chinese bakeries/supermarkets.
roboppy at 5:31PM on 07/28/09
I love them. They're always in the house. It's something we have to restock on the moment we are out of them (or we don't let ourselves ever run out of them)
They make a comforting and highly unhealthy, but mostly comforting quick meal.
With breakfast mantou though, I think I prefer fish or pork floss. Just rip the mantou into bite sized pieces and press the torn side down into the floss to pick up a generous, fuzzy layer and eat! Yum...it's got the same kind of sweet/savory flavor profile as lap cheong though.
fuuchan at 6:32PM on 07/28/09
Cut up, fried crispy and put in fried rice. Add a fried egg on top and you're golden.
ajdaddy at 6:47PM on 07/28/09
I love chinese sausage! Only trouble is I can't seem to find it anywhere around here.
princexy at 8:05PM on 07/28/09
My chinese grandma makes a wonderful hash with it. She chops it up, mixes it with ground pork, water chestnuts and soy sauce and steams it.
allirose at 1:42PM on 07/30/09
Oh man, Chinese sausage is sooooo good...and there's a place that sells them right down the road...hmmm. XD
Best part is, you can eat them for any meal of the day, and they're still fantastic.
sar_t at 2:59PM on 08/01/09