title: Node.js & Express: template engine for plain html code
body: <p>Using Node.js and express in a MEAN environment, I am looking for a simple and straightforward template engine, meeting these requirements:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>does not dictate me to only use its own weird syntax but allows me to keep writing webpages using pure/plain html and js </li>
  <li>supports conditional includes </li>
  <li>works with express</li>
  <li>operates on server-side (Node.js/Express)</li>
  <li>executes freakin' fast ;) </li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Basically I just want to slice my webpage into several modules (e. g. header, footer, ...) and include those now and then based on simple conditions. I don't want to entirely (re-)rebuild all webpages using a proprietary template language but rather prepare a few html modules that I concatenate at runtime (comparable to PHP where I just use the include instruction to paste prepared html code). 
  I had a look at <a href="http://garann.github.io/template-chooser/" rel="nofollow">http://garann.github.io/template-chooser/</a> and <a href="https://github.com/nodejs/node-v0.x-archive/wiki/modules#templating" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/nodejs/node-v0.x-archive/wiki/modules#templating</a> but the sites seem outdated and according to them, there ain't no template engine available fully meeting my requirements!? 
  Suggestions anyone?</p>