International Bread Day

Last week was International Bread Day at school. Each student had to bring in bread that was special to the family and provide a recipe for the class. I really struggled with this because Asians aren't big bread bakers. I mean, I make banana bread and zucchini bread, but I make it because it tastes good (or because my bananas are going to rot soon). I didn't feel that any of these breads were particularly special to my family. And I'm not a homemade cinnamon roll or dinner roll kinda girl...I have to admit that the Pillsbury Doughboy is sorta my best friend. So, I didn't know what to do.

Then I remembered that we eat baozi for breakfast a lot. Baozi are Chinese steamed buns that can be filled with sweet or savory things inside. The kind we eat are sweet and filled with red bean paste or taro paste. I'm not a taro fan, but the taro filled ones are a favorite at our house. Elina also loves that the taro steamed buns are lavender in color. (The red bean ones are just plain white.) Either way, they're delicious so I thought it would be a good bread to share with Elina's class.

Then I realized that we don't have a "recipe" for baozi. My "recipe" is (1) go to an Asian grocery store, (2) pick up the steamed buns in the frozen food section, and (3) purchase said items. I explained this to the teacher and she said it would be fine with or without a recipe.

I stayed for International Bread Day at school because I wanted to sample all the tasty breads that everyone brought (oh, and I also wanted to spend time with my child). There was all kinds of yummy stuff--pumpkin bread, challah, cinnamon rolls, monkey bread, Mexican bread pudding, and more. We discovered that Elina likes pumpkin bread and that she likes almond flavored stuff. I was impressed. All of Elina's classmates loved the steamed buns. Since we had brought in the moon cakes before, the kids already knew that red bean paste and taro paste actually taste good. It was funny because we had to share the bread with the other kindergarten class and 80% of those other kids did not even try Elina's buns because they thought they looked too strange. Oh well.

Either way, it was a fun and yummy school event!