The classic Beijing breakfast pairing is fried dough and soy beans. Youtiao, literally ‘oil stick’, are wheaten strips that are deep-fried in hot oil until puffy, golden and undeniably delicious. Straight from the oil, it’s hard to imagine dampening the flavour of the salty-sweet layers of chewy dough, but Beijingers take their youtiao with fresh soy milk, doujiang. It’s kind of like the hutong version of a coffee and doughnut–so much so that the name youtiao doujiang is a byword for breakfast (and a euphemism for a morning quickie, but you didn’t hear that from us).

Price: 2-4 RMB per 500g; 2-5 RMB per bowl

Time: early morning

Source: timeoutbeijing.com