Yummy, delicious oil sticks

So, last Friday while I was at the BYU library studying and doing homework, I decided to take a stroll along the aisles of books. While doing so, I happened across some chinese recipe books. Considering the fact that I served a mission for two years in Taiwan, I was eager to see what foods these books contained. As I flipped through the pages I could once again taste that wonderful, unique taste of authentic Taiwan food. Needless to say, I checked a few recipe books out, hoping that they would bring me delight as I experimented with them.

And that's precisely what I did today. For dinner I made the best chicken fried rice that I've made by myself yet. It was delicious! Mushrooms, green onions, bean sprouts, corn, chicken, and lots and lots of rice! I'm definitely looking forward to making that recipe again.

My second experiment was a little more fun. They are a wonderful Taiwanese (and Chinese) breakfast food called 油條 (pronunciation = you2tiao2). Those "2"s on the end of the words mean second tone. The direct translation of it is "oil sticks." Basically, they are long skinny fried bread sticks that kind of resemble a churro but don't taste like one and kind of taste like a scone but don't look like one. The ingredients used are baking soda, salt, alum, ammonia powder, flour and water. Now, for those of you who don't know what ammonia powder is don't feel left out. I had no clue either. After asking many people who I considered to be familiar with cooking ingredients I found myself as clueless as I started. So, I decided to consult the all-wise internet. I stumbled upon a few sites that listed it as an ingredient used in some types of bread. However, they also told me that the most likely place to find them are in a pharmacy. Well, I didn't feel like going to a pharmacy to buy cooking ingredients, so I luckily found a site that explained that baking powder is a good substitute for ammonia powder.

So, after mixing the ingredients, watching them bubble like a chemistry experiment as I added water, kneading them together, and waiting five hours for the dough to rise, I was ready to fry them. And oh were they good! Definitely a keeper recipe. If any of you are interested I can type it up for you. Traditionally they are dipped in soy milk when eaten, but I found that honey and strawberry jam work pretty well on them too.