00:00早安! Welcome to Taipei! It is now 7.30 in the morning and we are here at Fuhang Soy
00:10Milk. This is one of my favorite places for breakfast probably in the world. Fuhang serves
00:14simple but very traditional Taiwanese breakfast. Taiwanese breakfast is sort of like the collection
00:19of the greatest hits in breakfast across China. So this is Wednesday, 7.30. This is as short
00:25as the line gets. This breakfast spot is situated inside of an old market. It's a big
00:31building and they're on the second floor. On a busy weekend day, they can do over 5,000
00:36people in five hours. Inside of this kitchen, each of the stations is responsible for only
00:41one thing. The first thing we should take a look at is the Hou Xiao Bing. It's basically
00:46like a scallion bread type of thing. It's sort of a pastry, sort of a little bit like
00:50a biscuit. In my opinion, this is probably the most impressive thing that they do here.
00:55It's a well-known breakfast item all throughout Taiwan, but here it's done with such care
00:59and such volume and with such freshness that it's always going to be good. The mixer is
01:04going to be bringing the dough together and after it ferments, usually overnight, it goes
01:09into this middle center island here. Chef will roll out these large batches of dough
01:14into long rectangles, stuff them with scallions, fold the dough over itself. As you can see,
01:20the press on the dough is very, very gentle. The glaze that's going over the top is a little
01:25bit of a sugar glaze in the form of maltose. That maltose is going to give it a beautiful,
01:30shiny brown sheen, but it's also going to allow those sesame seeds to stick. The coolest
01:35part is that all of these Xiao Bing are fired inside of a tandoor-style vertical oven. The
01:43Xiao Bing goes directly onto the side of the wall that is lined with clay. This oven is
01:49made by Fuhang themselves. It's a vertical oven that's charcoal-roasted. It bakes for
01:53about a minute or two. It's a really interesting process. She cools her hand ever so slightly
01:59with a sprinkle of ice-cold water. She slaps the dough onto the side of the oven where
02:02the dough is going to stick onto that porous clay surface. It bakes for about a minute
02:06or two. It's a really interesting process. You can hear the crackle. That crackle is
02:12the sesame seeds popping and that's part of the indication that it's ready. She has these
02:15cool little scissor tongs and she just tosses them one by one. When they're perfectly done,
02:20out directly into the basket. It's kind of amazing. It's a little bit acrobatic and you
02:25can see how leavened the dough is. It's nice and fluffy. There are regulations stopping
02:29me from jumping over and just grabbing one out of the basket, but it is as fresh and
02:33as delicious as it can get. After the Xiao Bing comes out of the hot oven, it goes straight
02:37into the basket and it goes up this way where the customers will buy their Xiao Bing. On
02:42this side, we have the more conventional ovens, but to me, the most exciting station
02:46is the You Tiao station. You Tiao is known in the West as Chinese doughnut. It's leavened
02:51dough. You roll it out, but she'll use a cleaver to portion out each dough stick. She's cutting
02:56it kind of like a knife-cut noodle or like a fettuccine pasta. After that, she's going
03:00to stretch out the dough and then press it down with a long metal pin. The signature
03:04look of a You Tiao is having two of the dough stuck together and deep fried together. It's
03:10kind of serendipitous and it's kind of romantic. By pushing down the two doughs together, chef's
03:14creating a butterfly shape that allows for the gluten to expand outwards a little bit
03:19more efficiently in the hot oil. When the raw You Tiao hits the hot oil, the oil is
03:24heating up the water inside of the You Tiao into steam, and the steam pushes out the exterior
03:29and creating a larger surface area for the You Tiao to expand into, creating a hollow
03:33center. That's the sort of signature texture for a You Tiao. Doughy, but still airy. It's
03:37kind of like a paradox in terms of texture, but it's fantastic. Watching dough expand
03:42in hot oil is just so mesmerizing. Oh, that technique is so awesome. And you see this
03:47whole area of You Tiao that's fresh made. Nothing worse than a stale You Tiao. Think
03:52about a donut. Nothing worse than a stale donut. So the busyness of Fuhang really ensures
03:56that every single You Tiao you're getting is as fresh as it can be. And that's why it's
04:00so, so, so good. We're back in line, downstairs, like everybody else, because just because
04:06you're filming doesn't mean that you get special treatment. But the good news is, as
04:09you're standing in line, you get to think what you'd like to order. Because there's
04:13a lot of customization options, right? Yes. There's a lot of different ways to order things.
04:17So first of all, we have to get the Hou Shao Bing. What's going to be inside of it? Because
04:21it's already so thick, I like it with just eggs. And then Bo Shao Bing, we can do eggs
04:25and You Tiao. We get the savory soy milk, because the savory soy milk is the number
04:28one seller here, by far. Standard issue for a lot of Chinese soy milk-based breakfasts.
04:33Basically, you're pouring hot soy milk with a little bit of acid together. As that pouring
04:39happens, it's going to coagulate, and it kind of becomes, in my opinion, it kind of becomes
04:42like a tofu soup kind of experience. Yeah. Okay, we're almost at the front of the line.
04:46We were around the corner, about 20 minutes, we got up here. So it might look very long,
04:51but it's actually quite efficient.
05:04So, for ordering, this section is only for beverages. And as we move down the queue,
05:12we're getting a different station with each section. Oh, the eggs. Dude, it's all perfect.
05:19It's basically kind of one by one, so perfectly separated.
05:34Super fast calculation. Not everybody can work here.
05:51So, this is what we ordered.
05:53So, the Ho Shao Bing is for sure my single favorite thing at Fuhang. You don't really
05:58get this type of Shao Bing in Taiwan. Most of the time, it's the Bao Shao Bing. It's
06:02very good. It travels well. But for me, the uniqueness of the clay oven and the Lao Mian,
06:07it's just the perfect, perfect, perfect item. Let's get into it.
06:15So, the crumb is quite dense, but it's fluffy. It's almost like a little bit of a biscuit
06:19on the top, and the bottom is a little bit more bready. I mean, it's got that characteristic
06:25brown that you'd see in naan bread, or any sort of flat bread that's cooked with its
06:30bottom stuck onto the side of a naan.
06:32And the texture of the Shao Bing really kind of closely resembles bagels, almost.
06:36Oh, yeah, yeah.
06:37It's very densely packed, yeasted, but it's still fluffy enough, crispy on the outside,
06:41nice and toasty. Can we bite into it now?
06:44Okay.
06:46I think it's like...
06:49Chew on the top reminds me of a bagel. You're totally right. It feels very nutrient-packed,
06:54and it's so much better when it's hot, and it's so much better when it came a couple
06:58feet away.
07:00It's kind of the fusion of a bagel, a sourdough, and a scallion pancake, right? It tastes like
07:05a scallion pancake. But my favorite thing to do here, actually, is to dip it into the
07:10savory soy milk, so you rehydrate the Shao Bing, and you get a little extra flavor.
07:16Let's look at the You Tiao real quick.
07:21Oh, yeah.
07:22You see that characteristic open crumb?
07:24Hollow center.
07:25Hollow center. The two doughs that are pressed together have been opened up. When you get
07:30those two together, you get a very crispy outside, gluten development in the center,
07:35holding the sides together.
07:36You can see where the steam was escaping, right?
07:39Yeah.
07:40It was evaporating.
07:41The water in the center of the dough, that wet dough, is going to push outwards and expands.
07:44The starch eventually is going to gelatinize and harden to create the actual shape that
07:49it ends up being. What's good about this air is that the outside is so much crispier,
07:53and when you dunk it into something, it'll hold, and it'll have plenty of space to soak
07:58up that liquid.
08:02So crispy. And Taiwanese breakfast, you'll notice, is very much carb on carb on carb.
08:07Yeah.
08:08Taiwan was a very agrarian culture back in the day, and breakfast was the most important
08:13meal of the day, because you would eat the breakfast, you'd go out into the fields, you
08:16would work hours and hours and hours of physical, hard labor, so you needed the calories.
08:19You needed to put the fried dough inside of the baked dough.
08:22They're busy because they're good, but they're also good because they're busy.
08:25It's a self-sustaining cycle.
08:27It's a beautiful, positive, self-reinforcing cycle.
08:29You're going to be intimidated when you see the line.
08:31When you come, you get to see that the freshness is integral to the deliciousness of this breakfast,
08:36especially for that whole chow mein.
08:38It really needs to be consumed fresh for you to understand all the work that's gone into it.
08:42I think this is a great breakfast, but the breakfast is only the first meal of the day,
08:47and there's plenty that we'll have to see around the city.
08:50I'm ready to go.
08:51Time to get out of here. On to the next.
08:53See ya.
09:09This is every weekend with Eric Z.
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