Cai Bao (pronounced ts-eye bao like the bow of a ship) quickly became one of my favorite foods in China. One of the problems with it though is that it's REALLY hard to say. The "c" in chinese is pronounced the same way as the z but with a little more of a ts sounds and more air blown out of your mouth. The whole air blowing thing is frustrating because once someone says that to me, I start blowing more air like they told me to and without fail, they immediately tell me to stop trying so hard. I've gone through this with more people than I can count and it's the same conversation. First "blow more air out..." I blow, then "no, see, you're trying too hard."
Usually I would just give up, chock it up to having an American tongue... but I NEED my "c" to be able to buy Cai Bao. See, there are at least two types of Bao Zi, one is the Cai Bao which has chinese veggies and tofu. The other is Rou Bao. This has a meat ball instead of the veggies, and it's good and all, but I'm still part vegan at heart. Anyway, the place by work NEVER gives me Cai Bao. I would walk up and say "Wo Yao (you learned this in a previous post, much different then Wo You!) liang ge Cai Bao" which means I want two Cai Bao. Guess what I got... Rou Bao...
It became a personal quest. I would get Cai Bao every morning, well I should say, I would TRY to get Cai Bao every morning... I would actually get Rou Bao every morning, but I would try to get Cai Bao... Everyone I worked with became interested in my efforts (mainly because I didn't stop talking about my c's pronunciation) and would ask me what I ate for breakfast. Unfortunately I always replied "Rou Bao..."
I started to get suspicious after a while. Rou and Cai sound completely different, so I went to a different place to buy it one morning... One of the funniest parts of this (to me at least) is that the two things look exactly alike, so you don't know what you have until you bite into them. It was a little suprise every morning! I would take a big old bite, always expecting veggies but getting juicy pork. Well this time, my big bite wasn't pork. I finally found a way to get my Cai Bao.
Needless to say, I don't go to that vender anymore. I think they were just being dicks. Here's a picture of Cai Bao
