長弘早點

A thirty-year-old Chinese-breakfast stall in an alley on Taishan Road in Yilan City — ask ten Yilan locals and nine will point you here. Shandong mantou, scallion pancakes, chive pockets, gang-zi-tou (hard-baked buns), and pan-fried buns line up in a row, a fixture of the local morning.

The pan-fried buns are seventeen NT each, in meat or veg. The filling is on the heavily marinated side; the chive version has glass noodles, egg, and tiny dried shrimp, its aroma vivid; the skin gets more fragrant the more you chew and doesn't lose points even cold. So popular that the listed “closes at noon” never holds — it often sells out before 11.

Yilan representative in Niang Niang's First All-Taiwan Pan-Fried Bun Contest. Closed Tuesdays; go early.