American Influencer Calls Yau Char Kwai "Chinese Donuts" And We Are Screaming Inside!
She's not wrong… 'dough'.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 02 Feb 2023, 06:33 PM
Yau char kwai, you tiao, or simply char kwai... These are the names we call the popular Chinese fritters in Malaysia
Due to our diverse culture, we have moved passed the traditional way of eating yau char kwai, which is with soya milk or porridge.
Malaysians, being a creative bunch, are known for eating it with kaya, coffee, or even MILO.
But what has confused us this time is what an American influencer called yau char kwai — she called it a "Chinese donut".
In an Instagram Reel posted on 31 January, Miki Rai showed her fans the meals that she was served while flying with Singapore Airlines.
Calling it "the best airplane food I've ever had", she said she was served congee with "Chinese donuts" for breakfast.
"The Chinese donut was still super crispy. This was low-key better than our homemade version," she reviewed.
Following that, she showed her 656,000 followers her lunch, which is crab fried rice and local kuih, Sri Muka, the latter of which she didn't know the name of.
At the time of writing, the video has garnered over 16,900 likes
In the comment section, a sizeable number of Instagram users were surprised by what Rai called yau char kwai.
"Nice to know you tiao is now called 'Chinese donut'," said a netizen with an anxious smiling emoji.
"CHINESE DONNUTTTTT!?!? It's not you tiao, it's 'Chinese churros'," said another person, who was possibly sarcastically suggesting another name for the breakfast staple.
One Instagram user then explained, "The Chinese donuts are more accurately known as dough fritters (油条) in many Asian countries."
To which Rai replied, "Hahaha, I call them you tiao. (I) had to google and 'Chinese donut' came up. Donut fritters sound way better."
To be fair, neither Chinese donut, Chinese churros, nor dough fritters are wrong names to call yau char kwai, as all three terms fetch millions of Google results pointing to the 'fried dough' delicacy
In fact, 'Chinese donut' fetches the most search results on Google with 27,600,000 entries.
The influencer, who creates content about nursing, was born in Japan and moved to the US when she was three years old. Her parents are from Taiwan and she can speak Chinese fluently.
Just as her response to a netizen, she said she calls it you tiao.
