Another success: Yong Tau Fu (less than $3, in a food court at the end of a warehouse full of autobody repair shops and industrial supply stores, and in a stall with a ‘B’ health department rating, which some friends claim is the delicious sweet spot between authenticity and pathogen count):
You stock a bowl with whatever greens, fish cakes, tofu, or other ingredients you want:
Then you hand the bowl to the person behind the counter, tell them if you want soup or noodles, and they finish it for you. The person who recommended this particular stall said it were good because it’s not all pre-cooked ingredients– if you put tofu in your bowl they take it out and deep fry it for you right then, and certain vegetables they’ll also cook very briefly before tossing them in with the noodles/broth. You top it with chili sauce at the table, of course:
I didn’t recognize either of the greens I picked (something with a leaf that looked like bok choy, but without the bulb at the bottom, and some small round-leaved greens), and am not sure if the thin crispy rectangles were tofu, fish, or just dough, but this was great, and refreshing after several meals of curry-and-sauce-heavy food over the past few days.