No Taiwan trip would be complete without having an authentic Taiwanese breakfast at a local establishment. Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang 永和豆漿大王 is one of such popular breakfast joints in Taipei.
Same name but different entities
You may not be aware but there are actually many other Taiwanese breakfast places with the same name. In Zhongzheng district where our hotel is located, there are 永和豆浆大王 @ Hengyang Road, 永和豆漿 @ Shaoxing S St, 永和豆漿大王 @ Zhongxiao E Rd, 永和豆浆 @ Roosevelt Rd and more.
Just Google it or go to Tripadvisor.com, you’ll find a long list of these soy milk eateries. I don’t think they are related to one another though as the signboards look different. But one thing they all have in common is that they serve up freshly made soy milk and a variety of breakfast items such as dan bing, shao bing, green onion pancakes, steamed buns and more.
How to get to Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang
The Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang outlet we went to was very near our hotel (Taipei M Hotel Main Station). Just a 4-minute walk away. This humble-looking shop is located on Yanping South Road. If you’re taking the MRT, you can alight at Ximen MRT Station and take a 7-8 minute walk to the shop. Distance is about 550m.
5.30am to 12.00pm Sat-Sun
+886 2 2371 1585
Came here 2 times in a week for breakfast and we always managed to get a table even though there wasn’t a big dining space. Just a couple of tables at the back. Seemed like most of their customers got takeaways. Very few dined in.
A delicious spread of Taiwanese breakfast
Consisting of salty soy milk, regular soy milk, dan bing and green onion pancake with egg.
Soy Milk
I requested for soy milk without sugar. That’s normally how I like my soy milk to be. Could really taste the richness and fragrance of the soy beans. Over here, they use non-GMO soy beans.
Salty Soy Milk
This was the savoury version of the regular soy milk, which was served hot. In it, you would find dried shrimps, you tiao, preserved radish and spring onions. It wasn’t very appetising at first glance because it looked like a bowl of curdled soy milk or mashed up chawanmushi, lol. In terms of taste, it was like eating congee with savoury toppings. I didn’t hate it but I wouldn’t say I loved it either. I guess I just preferred the good old soy milk that I’m used to.
Dan Bing
Dan bing is actually a type of omelette and flour pancake. It was a little on the chewy side which I liked. I enjoyed having the dan bing with their special chilli sauce that had bean sauce (dou ban jiang) in it. So moreish!
Green Onion Pancake with Egg
Not as oily as I expected it to be, which was good. Not the best green onion pancake I had in Taiwan but it was still quite delicious as it had extra fragrance of egg.
On the second occasion, we also tried their shaobing with you tiao, radish cake and dan bing with meat floss.
Dan Bing with Meat Floss
This was even better than the plain dan bing we had previously as the meat floss gave extra texture and flavour.
Radish Cake
Pretty normal. Would need to pair it with their chilli sauce to boost the flavour, otherwise too plain.
Shao Bing with You Tiao
The shao bing was very light, airy and flaky whereas the you tiao was hard and crunchy (fried too long maybe?).
Nonetheless, I loved the textures when eating both together at the same time.
Final thoughts
Breakfast at Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang wasn’t like wow but it was satisfying, yet affordable. As you could tell from the items we had, a typical Taiwanese breakfast like this would be carb-loaded and very filling. I’m never a breakfast person but I will wake up early to have this, haha. Very comforting! Makes it a great way to start the day! 🙂