Shaobing and soy milk breakfast

What it is

Shaobing (燒餅) is a baked flatbread made of thin layers, often topped with sesame. At Taiwan's soy milk breakfast shops it is split open and filled, most famously with a stick of youtiao (油條, fried dough) to make shaobing youtiao (燒餅油條). Scallion omelette and pickled greens are other common fillings. It comes with soy milk, either sweet or salty (鹹豆漿).

Where it came from

Shaobing belongs to northern Chinese cooking. Legend says the Han-dynasty general Ban Chao brought it back from the Western Regions, and it was first called hubing (胡餅), or "foreign cake". In the Tang dynasty the Japanese monk Ennin noted that hubing were in fashion.

In Taiwan, the fried dough came first. Locals called youtiao 油炸粿 and drank almond tea with it, and a 1941 magazine records both on sale early in the morning at Shilin market. Shaobing was uncommon until the migration from the mainland around 1949, which brought about 1.2 million people. The writer Yu Fu (魚夫) points out that Taiwan has century-old youtiao but no century-old shaobing, and that the writers Liang Shih-chiu and Tang Lu-sun never knew the pair eaten together in Beiping (Beijing). He passes on a story, as hearsay, that the newcomers disliked greasy fingers and so tucked the youtiao inside the bread.

In 1955 two veterans from the north, Li Yun-tseng (李雲增) and Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), opened a stall by the Zhongzheng Bridge in Yonghe, selling soy milk, shaobing and youtiao. Other breakfast stalls gathered around it, which is why so many soy milk shops across Taiwan still carry the Yonghe (永和) name.

How it is made

The dough is rolled out with an oil-and-flour paste (油酥) and folded, so it bakes into thin, flaky layers. It is sprinkled with sesame and baked. Some shops still stick the breads to the inside wall of a charcoal oven, which gives a smoky flavour. Each one is split and filled to order. For salty soy milk, the bowl is seasoned first with soy sauce, vinegar, pickled mustard greens, dried shrimp, scallion and broken youtiao. Hot soy milk goes on top, and the vinegar sets it into soft curds.

How to eat it

This is breakfast food. Some shops draw queues before dawn, and one well-known Taipei shop runs around the clock. Order a filled shaobing and a bowl of soy milk. Sweet soy milk comes hot or iced, and youtiao can be dipped into it. A little chilli oil lifts the salty kind.