Ah, the Taiwanese love a good deep-fried breakfast. You tiao, fried dough sticks about 18 inches in length, are a comfort food from my childhood. As a kid we'd be served you tiao with a shallow bowl of sugar for dipping and a cold glass of soy milk—great way to start any day!

The grown-up version? Salty instead of sweet, but just as deliciously sinful. Sao bing you tiao is a sandwich of a crispy sesame flatbread stuffed with chopped you tiao—every bite squishes with oil (but in an unbelievably tasty way, I swear!). A fantastic place for sao bing you tiao is Xing Xian Dou Jiang Dian, at #70 Ai-Kuo East Road. This road is known as "the wedding street," a place most cabbies can locate. On the southwest corner of the Chiang Kai Shek memorial, Xing Xian is only about 2 blocks from my grandfather's apartment, thus very convenient whenever the craving hit.

Everything is made for take-away eating, but there is seating available at a tiny counter and tables. A couple of weathered-looking old men take turns rolling out the you tiao, cutting grooves in them to create their unique look, and dipping batches in the fryer—a slow, patient process. The finished result wrapped in the sao bing is unbelievably decadent but light at the same time.

As accompaniment most people order dou jiang, soybean milk. It's available cold and sweet in a cup or hot and salty in a soup bowl. Either version is excellent. Other breakfast items are available as well, like dan bing, eggs rolled up in Chinese pancakes. But the fried dough and soy milk are the big draws—the small stand gets packed quickly!

One sao bing you tiao costs 24NT and a cup of dou jiang costs 20NT. Do not miss this local specialty while in Taipei.

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