Doujiang and You-tiao

This was a fun story from my P-I days:

TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- My uncle's doujiang shop sits on the corner of Taiping and Shuangshih roads. It has no name and no official address beyond its coordinates at a bustling intersection.

If you drive by after 11 in the morning, all you'll see is a concrete platform with no formal storefront. A sliding garage door conceals a corner kitchen, powered by propane. Someone in a hurry or too lazy to walk around the corner along the sidewalk might cut across what is essentially the eatery's floor.

Pass by the shop at breakfast time and there is usually a swarm of people, crowded around a fresh tray of flatbread from the oven or sitting on stackable plastic stools at a half-dozen folding tables, sipping spoonfuls of doujiang between bites of a "doughnut sandwich." People arrive by any form of transportation, from motor scooters to Mercedes sedans. They eat their meal efficiently, without urgency or fanfare, and then go about their day. Read more.