Tianjin: Yong He Dou Jiang 永和豆浆

Even though the hotels I've stayed in have a pretty substantial buffet breakfast, there's nothing quite like heading out to where the locals go. There's a tau huay chain in China called YongHe DouJiang that has really good beancurd stuff, and there's also lots of imitation YongHes as well. I have no idea which is the genuine or original one, but no complaints as long as the food is good. I was in Tianjin over consecutive weeks, and so managed to squeeze in a couple of visits within the month.



Ordering and paying before sitting down. The only menu in the shop is the one behind the cashier...in Chinese text only.

The spread from the first visit: sweet tau huay chwee (RMB3), salty tau huay (RMB5), you tiao (RMB3) and spring onion pancake/cong you bing (RMB6). The you tiau was real crispy and oily....the kind that turns your paper napkin yellow : )

I was most pleased with the salty beancurd. The first time I had ever tried it was in Sydney at a shop in Chinatown called Mother Chu's, or Zhu Mama. That cost me A$7 and was worth every dollar. This, at RMB5, was even better. It came with slices of black fungus, salted vegetable, dried shrimp and spring onions. Not only was the flavour good, the tau huay was absolutely smooth and moist and sufficiently firm.

After stirring it up some
Forgot how much these xiaolongbao cost. But the skin was a bit thick compared to the versions we get in Singapore.

Wanton soup on the second visit (this came after another serve of salty tau huay). This was reasonable although a bit salty (seems to be a problem with all Chinese food)

Egg and spring onion pancake - this was also very enjoyable, with a crispy outer crust and soft fluffy omelette.