Dishes
Youtiao soup
油條湯
Also called: deep-fried dough stick soup · 油炸粿 (iû-tsiā-kué)
Fried dough stick in a light, clear broth with garlic chives. Tainan eats it on the side with migao.
Photo: KQuhen, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Popo le Chien, CC0Where it comes from
Youtiao itself comes with a well-known folk legend: it is said to have started as a protest against the Song dynasty official Qin Hui, blamed for the death of general Yue Fei, with the two joined strips of dough standing for Qin Hui and his wife.
How it is made
Youtiao goes into a clear, lightly sweet broth scattered with garlic chives (韭菜).
How to eat it
Order it with a plate of migao in place of the usual sishen soup. Youtiao also turns up in Tainan congee, savoury soy milk and beef soup.
In Tainan
Hsia Ta Tao Lan Migao, in a residential part of West Central District since 1961, lists it next to sishen, pork cartilage and fish skin soups. A food blogger notes its youtiao once came from a century-old maker on Bao'an Road that has since closed.
Where to eat it in Tainan
Sources