Yong He Dou Jiang, Taipei 2012

Yong He Dou Jiang stores are a dime a dozen in Taipei, and possibly the whole of Taiwan. Heck, I even spotted an outlet in Singapore when I got back. They are your everyday all-day stores where you can rely on for a warm cup of soya bean and some hearty food before you get on with the rest of the day. I really like that Taipei, despite being such a busy metropolis, has so many of these little stores still dotting the streets. This store looks like it has been as it is since the day it opened, humble and unassuming.

We were trying to find our way to a concert venue, a little bit lost and trying to figure out what to do for dinner when we spotted this little store right next to the place we were searching for. We immediately zeroed in like the hungry vultures that we were. We ordered a variety of eats to fuel ourselves up for the rest of the night. We later realised that sitting behind us was the bass player of the band we were going to listen! We must have been too noisy and our Singaporean-accented mandarin too distinct because he singled us out later during the set. It was a little embarrassing but also kind of cool.