Increasing up in New York City, my Cantonese mother, who hails from Hong Kong, would get my little one sister and me a dollar’s value of bubble waffles, or gai daan jai (鷄蛋仔), to share just about every weekend.
We’d get about 20 pieces in a scorching, brown paper bag, and Mom generally took two pieces as “food tax.” When we reached our grandparents’ condominium on East Broadway from Pell Avenue and Bowery, the bag would be vacant, and my sister and I constantly wished we each individual had our own bag.
Bubble waffles ended up a massive aspect of my mother’s childhood, my childhood, and, currently, my son’s. This handle signifies so considerably to me that I even made a recipe for it in my second cookbook.
When I acquired about Trader Joe’s bubble waffles, my pleasure was palpable (I squealed). I was so eager to attempt them that I created two trips from Renton to Kent inspite of my dislike for driving. On the first day, the waffles hadn’t arrived nonetheless, so I asked an associate named Kyle to hold two models for me. I picked them up the following day, and when I checked, I located the freezer aisle empty of the waffles. It was clear that these waffles were being in high need.
This doesn’t surprise me. For $4.49, you get 4 4-inch frozen waffles for every box. The box, pink and yellow, is super lovable, and even if a person doesn’t know what a bubble waffle is, I sense they’d gravitate toward the box.
Now, although these waffles have a chewy mochi-like middle, they aren’t gluten-free considering the fact that they contain wheat flour. What offers them the mochi texture is tapioca starch (the primary ingredient of boba pearls) fairly than glutinous rice flour (the key component of mochi). I seemed all over the box, hoping for a mention of Hong Kong or a blurb explaining bubble waffles, but I couldn’t obtain any.
Simply Recipes / Trader Joe’s
What I Enjoy About Trader Joe’s Bubble Waffles
After again at home, I immediately produced the waffles for brunch, adhering to the straightforward heating guidance on the packaging. Trader Joe’s prefers them air-fried but also offers guidelines on making use of the toaster oven or microwave.
I heated two in the air fryer for five minutes, a person in the toaster for 6 minutes, and a single in the microwave for under 1 moment. There was no sizeable variance involving the air-fried and toasted waffles: the two variations had a shiny, crispy exterior with a chewy, smooth interior.
The microwaved edition, nevertheless, lacked the crispiness and was incredibly tender and chewy, like a massive, hot boba pearl. I loved the air-fried and toasted versions more. For busy mothers like me, in a pinch, you can rapidly whip up these waffles, and I respect that.
These bubble waffles are also legit in terms of aesthetics and scent. Taste-intelligent, they are a small heavier on the vanilla notes and sweeter than the bubble waffles I have gotten from Cantonese avenue vendors or built myself. But that signifies you can delight in these on their possess, without having a drizzle of caramel, syrup, or honey, for breakfast or as a snack. And getting on the scaled-down aspect, these waffles go down rapidly. Right before I understood it, I experienced concluded one and moved on to a next. (Justified, though, because I was testing them for this article!)
Bubble waffles from Hong Kong were invented all-around the sixties when street vendors needed a way to use up damaged or leftover eggs. I usually assumed these waffles were identified as gai daan jai (which implies very little hen eggs in Cantonese) since they provided eggs. Now I notice they’re named this way for their shapes—each waffle bubble resembles a minimal brown egg. So, and lastly and relatively ironically, I adore that these bubble waffles are egg-no cost and vegan, making these snacks additional inclusive and friendly for people with dairy or egg allergy symptoms.
Whilst these bubble waffles are not precisely like the kinds from my childhood, they’re a enjoyable contemporary twist. I’m joyful that a snack from my childhood and memory lane is now accessible to a wider audience—a piece of Hong Kong road food can be in your freezer also!
