Taiwan's Most Iconic Breakfast Spot Serves 1000 People an Hour

Bon Appétit

Today, Bon Appétit joins chefs Lucas Sin and Eric Sze in Taiwan to try one of the island’s best breakfast spots. Fuhang Soy Milk is Taipei's largest breakfast operation and can serve up to 1,000 people an hour on their busiest days.

Transcript

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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