What it is
Youtiao soup (油條湯) is a bowl of broth with youtiao in it. Youtiao is a long, hollow stick of fried dough, called iû-tsiā-kué (油炸粿) in Taiwanese. In Tainan the soup appears as a side for migao (米糕), steamed sticky rice topped with pork sauce. Tainan cooks often put youtiao into liquid: it goes into congee, savoury soy milk and beef soup.
Where it came from
The story attached to the soup is really the story of youtiao. Legend says that after the Southern Song chancellor Qin Hui (秦檜) was blamed for the death of the general Yue Fei, a snack seller shaped dough figures of Qin and his wife and fried them. In time the figures were simplified into two strips stuck together. The name 油炸鬼, 'oil-fried devil', may owe less to the tale than to a slip in saying 油炸粿.
In Taiwan, a Japanese-era column in the Taiwan Nichi Nichi Shinpo (臺灣日日新報) describes children selling youtiao from baskets in the early morning. Taiwanese then ate it with almond tea, while Japanese residents took it with miso soup. One food writer links the pairing with shaobing flatbread to mainland migrants who arrived after 1949.
How it is made
Youtiao dough is flour, salt and a raising agent, kneaded until stretchy, then rested and folded several times. It is rolled into strips; two are laid together and pressed down the middle, stretched, and dropped into hot oil, where they puff up hollow and golden. Northern makers traditionally used alum and soda, and some now switch to aluminium-free powders. For the soup, the fried stick goes into a bowl of hot broth.
How to eat it
Order it with a plate of migao in place of the usual four-herb soup (四神湯). Elsewhere in Tainan youtiao tops salty congee, savoury soy milk (鹹豆漿) and beef soup. In the north it is a common partner for Cantonese-style congee, and across Taiwan it is folded into shaobing for breakfast.
Around Taiwan
- Tainan
- Hsia Ta Tao Lan Migao (下大道蘭米糕), on Kangle Street in West Central District, has made migao since 1961. Its soups are four-herb, pork cartilage, fish skin and youtiao.
