Taipei - 永和豆漿 (Yonghe Soy Milk)

We were wandering the neighborhood near our hotel looking for breakfast. A spot we'd found on google maps was closed for a remodel, but another similar shop was open a few doors down.

The menu was pretty daunting, but with a bit of image-based translation and some pointing we managed to order breakfast from the one man running the joint.

Soy milk, along with a fluffy bao with a piece of pork and an egg.

And a pancake wrapped in egg.

I really liked the "bao sandwich", so I got it again the next morning. The bao was super fluffy and everything came together after slathering it with some of their provided sauces.

This time we got a "leek box", which turned out to be pretty much that - a dumplingy box filled with leeks.

Pretty representative every-day Taiwanese breakfasts, I think. We really liked it.

Kuala Lumpur - Brickfields Pisang Goreng and Other Snacks

The last time we were in KL, we tried to get pisan goreng (fried banana) from this stall, but we got there too late and they were out.

This time, we made sure to get there earlier and were rewarded with freshly fried banana fritters.

We also got one of their kuih bakul - a fried "sandwich" with nian gao (a sweet, sticky paste made from glutinous rice flour) between a slices of sweet potato and/or yam. And we got some curry puffs to snack on later.

We've professed our love for egg tarts before, and we've been snagging them here and there on this trip. This one was from a cart in a hawker center in Brickfields. Mildly sweet, and nice and eggy.

We'd heard that KL's Chinatown has been up-and-coming in recent years, but you wouldn't know it from our visit to the Petaling Street market stretch. Still just packed with stall after stall of knock-off shoes, bags and watches.

As on our previous visit, the one highlight is the soy milk stall in the middle.

Tau foo fa - soy milk pudding - topped with a brown sugar and ginger syrup. Comforting and refreshing.

Taipei - Yong He and Shihai Soy Milk

Back in Taiwan after 5 years, our first breakfast stop was to revisit Yong He Soy Milk King (you can find our previous visit here). It was completely unchanged from the last time we were here.

We enjoyed some cold, mildly-sweetened soy milk with Youtiao for dipping.

We also had soup dumplings, of course. Hard to beat at $90NT (or just under $3 USD).

They might not be as pretty, or have as perfectly fine skins as a place like Din Tai Fung, but they taste great.

We also enjoyed some radish cake and a pork bao.

A few days later, we found ourselves hungry at lunchtime, and stopped into Shihai Soy Milk.

Cold soy milk hit the spot to help cool off from the heat. And some more soup dumplings:

Most of these old-school soy milk places have very similar menus and a similar feel. Very no-nonsense, bustling vibe. We really like them.

Kuala Lumpur Chinatown - Kim Soya Bean, Bunn Choon Egg Tart and a Ramly Burger

To be honest, we found Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown area fairly disappointing - lots of people selling merchandise and very little food. Still, we managed to find a few things to eat.

Right in the heart of Petaling Street is Kim Soya Bean, and it was doing a brisk business when we stopped by.



We got a bowl of warm soy pudding ("tau fu fah") and it was really, really good. Lovely, soft and creamy and swimming in lightly sweet syrup.



If you've followed our time in Hong Kong, you are aware that we developed a bit of an obsession with egg tarts there. So when we found Bunn Choon Egg Tarts on the edge of Chinatown, we had no choice but to stop in.



And when we saw they had durian flavored egg tarts, we just had to try one.



The regular tart is on the left and the durian on the right. The standard egg tart was very good. I wasn't sure what to expect from the durian version, but it turned out to be terrific. The tart itself wasn't durian flavored - there was a layer of durian jelly on the top. Very good.



Later in the day, we found ourselves back in the same area, desperate to grab something to eat. Most things were closed, but on our earlier visit had seen a Ramly burger cart just starting to set up and they were now in full swing.



Ramly burgers are definitely a thing in Kuala Lumpur. As I understand it, they are named after the Ramly patties, a product of a local fast-food company. Various street food vendors take these patties and do their own thing with them. Above is a chicken and fried egg version.



And there is a beef patty somewhere in that one, although it was hard to see (or taste) under all the other goop. Definitely a case of condiment overload for me, but it was fun to watch them make it.