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Q: Why do Chinese eat bread as dessert?
China has those nice little loafs of bread, but I think they are meant for dessert. They are close to what I call egg bread. The Chinese don't eat toast or sandwiches like I do. Whats up with that?
Chinese do not grow much wheat, instead they cultivate rice and soybeans. Wheat goes into making noodles. They do make cakes from both rice and soy which I suppose could be counted as a type of bread that is eaten during meals.
Of course these days Chinese do eat non-indigenous Western foods like pizza or cheesecake and even hotdogs on a bread bun.
Why should they?
Just because it's different doesn't make it wrong...
Monterey:
No-one said it was wrong, did they? They were just asking a question.
Actually, this is a north-south question. The northern part of China does cultivate wheat for a fact -- there are fields and fields of wheat up here. Additionally, they use wheat for noodles which northerners will tell you that they prefer over rice which they consider a southern thing.
As for a predeliction for bread, tastes are changing. I see it before my very eyes. A very large Western chain supermarket recently opened in the provincial northern town where I live. This supermarket bakes its own bread -- white, soft-crusted bread with a milk base like the common bread found in the United States, not sweet at all, just normal as we would consider it regular bread. They also make all kinds of specialty breads -- baguette, round-loafed large-sized Russian ryebread, etc., etc., and believe it or not, these speciality just fly off the shelves. I couldn't believe but I have seen it with my own eyes -- and it's not the relatively small Chinese upper middle-class that is buying these items. No, on the contrary it's your average Mr. and Mrs. Wong or Liu or whatever and they pick up two or three loaves at the same time. I thought it would be a fluke but no, the bread counters at the store are often depleted by noon.
There are many Western-style bakeries in town also but the bread they make is still sweet in texture and less-favored than the bread above.
So times are changing.
The only good real Chinese bread I have had so far (not sweet) was at a Chinese BBQ joint I go to all the time.....cooked on the grill....and quite good.
I love good bread, and I am getting my fill now before I leave in 2 days and have to go 5 months without any good bread.....a sacrifice for the job.
Baguettes at the local western food store just don't cut it.
maybe a better question would be why do they eat dessert first?
I think, ultimatley, bread is eaten as dessert because most of the bread (at least what I've encountered), is sweet, so it is prefered as an after dinner item.
