Guilty Pleasure: Chinese Crullers

 Known as yau char kwai or youtiao, these are officially known as Chinese crullers in English. Sounds so fancy but really, it's just your fried flour. I love this very much especially with a cup of coffee. None of your pretentious caffeine shots but the local ones with a nice dose of condensed milk. Ultra thick, rich and creamy. Quite a staple breakfast item back in those days. You'll also notice that Hong Kong-ites also like to eat this with their porridge for breakfast. It does go well with porridge but dim sum restaurants don't give you the whole stick, just pieces of it. Why so stingy?!?!

On its own, it has a slight savory taste and probably oily too because it is deep fried after all. Hence, a guilty pleasure. But because it is rather cheap (less than a dollar per pair), it is hard to steer clear of it when I spot a stall selling it. Probably like banging some slut. You know many have frequented that hole but damn, it's hard to resist the free entry.

There are few different variations to the basic yau char kwai. There's one fashioned into a bun. It can be filled with glutinous rice or red bean paste. I prefer the former as it's sweeter without being too overpowering on the savory bun. My favorite though is ma kiok or horse's feet (literal translation from Cantonese). It is the shorter version of yau char kwai but is sweeter. The sesame seeds also provide additional crunch factor. All the more awesome.

But you know what really tops it off?
When someone buys them for you.

I should stop leeching food off people. Really starting to feel like a damn leech, parasite even.