When Vicky wrote in from Taipei about the staples of Taiwanese breakfast, I was struck with curiosity. Every other account I stumbled upon stoked that curiosity into veritable starvation until I finally made it up to Flushing to experience the fried dough feasts of Taiwanese cuisine for myself.

This mission couldn’t be easier for hungry New Yorkers to accomplish: Prince Street, a stretch of road curving just behind the Main St. Subway stop in downtown Flushing, harbors two excellent destinations for that morning meal, and both establishments offer said meal in the Taiwanese fashion well into the afternoon.

Nan Xiang Xiaolongbao, a restaurant that serves a mix of Taiwanese and Shanghainese fare, has received praise for serving what some consider to be New York’s best xiaolongbao (Shanghai-style soup dumplings). While xiaolongbao have precious little to do with Taiwanese breakfast, I rarely meet a soup dumpling I don’t like and never refuse a steamer of these gems when they’re on the menu. While the massive dumplings here are more thick-skinned than I’d like, they’re built to hold back a generous bounty of flavorful soup, setting the flaw of proportion just one ponderous, gushing, vinegar-blessed bite from forgiveness.

It’s also tough to cut straight to Taiwanese food when shengjianbao (Shanghai-style fried pork buns) are on offer. Nan Xiang’s shengjianbao suffer from greater flaws – lack of soup, overly thick and doughy bun – than its xialongbao, but a beautifully browned and crunchy bottom make these buns just as much fun to eat, despite their lower ranking on the flavor scale. Nan Xiang’s turnip puffs – each one a golden-brown sample of flaky pastry, toasted sesame and mild, shredded vegetable filling – ultimately trump the clunky buns when it comes to must-order items.

Giving the xiaolongbao a true run for their money, however, is fan tuan. Vicky’s loving ode to these fistfuls of joy is fully realized at Nan Xiang: The sticky rice isn’t packed so tightly that you can’t enjoy the texture of every grain, pork sung is included in just enough volume to get the juices flowing, and the fried cruller at the center – which, apparently, is typically a stale, twice-cooked leftover – retains enough chewiness to add an extra crisp to each springy bite. Add some chili oil and vinegar, and savory fan tuan quickly becomes the best hand-held meal outside of a taqueria.

Nan Xiang’s pancakes, which seem to fuse the composition of a flaky, chewy, slightly greasy Shanghainese cong you bing (green onion pancake) with the form of a Taiwanese sou bing (fried sesame flatbread), are also a highlight – stuffed with sliced beef and scallions, they’re essential to any order here. Fried bun with chives and egg are a bolder choice, composed of an even thinner, flakier crust and overflowing with punchy chives and the smallest bit of scrambled egg to prevent flavor overload.

The pancake marathon continues just down Prince St. at Nan Bei He, a popular destination for Taiwanese food that has actually moved inside its sister restaurant, King 5 Noodle House – you won’t see the words “Nan Bei He” in English on the storefront, but the characters are written in vertical red on the noodle house’s front door.

Nan Bei He’s dan bing (pancake with egg), which costs $2.15, murders the Egg McMuffin and every other starch+egg combination to make a fast food chain’s value menu. Fried to flaky but not too greasy, the rice flour pancake is embedded with scallions and judiciously folded with a thin layer of fluffy egg in a subtle showcase of balance.

Less impressive is Nan Bei Hei’s fan tuan: Its sticky rice is hardened into an overly dense layer, and the fried cruller inside really does feel like it was left out overnight and fried again the next morning. Radish sou bing, taking the form of stuffed buns, are tasty, but they’re unnecessary when regular sou bing and cong you bing are on the table.

Fortunately, the very same fried dough that falls short inside Nan Bei He’s fan tuan shines when given its own spotlight. An order of you tiao (translation: “oil stick”) revels in its crisp, airy, multi-layered, carb-and-fat-flushed stance, especially when it’s requested alongside sou bing for carb-on-carb action. I’ve done a horrible job of making my own you tiao sandwich, but if you make it to Nan Bei He, just keep your eyes open for the real deal – some nearby Taiwanese father is sure to open up the sou bing, split and fold his cruller to fit it perfectly inside the rectangular flat bread, and smash the crusts together with his palms for a perfect fried dough double decker.

You tiao is rarely taken alone. Sweet, hot soy milk is a delicious complement (just dip, eat, then spoon up the leftovers), but 70 cents more ($1.95 total) procures a mighty bowl of Taiwanese xian dou jiang (salty soy milk). Rather than adding sugar, cooks introduce vinegar to the equation, causing soy milk to curdle into pillowy clouds of tofu soup. Chopped you tiao and a pinch of pork sung is thrown in, then the bowl is topped off with scallions and tiny dried shrimp.

While I rarely consider dried shrimp an improvement to anything, the rest of these ingredients merge to create the perfect partner for a sou bing you tiao sandwich. Fluffy, half-curdled soy milk is thin enough to be soaked up with fried dough but hearty enough to be gulped straight from the soup spoon, with a savory, slightly sour flavor that stays well within the boundaries of comfort food.

After eating my way along Prince St., reminded of how many incredible daily dining options are available to the residents of Queens, I have to kick myself just a little for ultimately deciding to move down to Park Slope. Once I relocate, my trips to Flushing will take almost twice as long, and it might not be morning by the time I make it out for Taiwanese breakfast. Still, if Sunset Park and the rest of South Brooklyn don’t offer a tasty alternative, I’ll happily take that hour-long commute as another chance to catch up on my reading, with a $10 feast of fried dough and soy milk waiting on the other end of the 7 train.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 8:50 am and is filed under New York, Queens.