Jianbing

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Jianbing

Postby Matthew Notch » Wed Jan 06, 2016 9:55 pm

I guess this is where this goes. All the other food posts are here, looks like.

I have been watching, for the last couple hours, videos of Chinese street vendors making jianbing, a crepe of sorts with egg, pickled vegetables, sometimes lettuce or cabbage, scallions,often a fried wonton cracker, and always some sort of sauce. Really, the variations are as numerous as the chefs who prepare them. It's all pretty mysterious to me but it's awfully fun to watch. I sort of want to learn how to make these and open my own cart, to serve working people a different sort of breakfast.



The spinning plates are my favorite.



It's still pretty neat when the griddle doesn't spin, though. Also I note that sometimes the egg is just cooked on top and folded in, and sometimes the whole thing is flipped and the egg grills on the griddle.



You can tell when it's an English speaker when they play the ethnic music at the beginning. Note that her entire setup is on the back of her bike. Awesome!



And this is the first one I saw. I note that he doesn't even break the egg up, just keeps spinning and spinning the griddle until it's spread evenly over the crepe.



Has anyone had this? What's it like?

EDIT: Have to add this one because HOLY CRAP UNDER A MINUTE

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Last edited by Matthew Notch on Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jianbing

Postby DjiboutiDan » Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:00 pm

I had one of those in Beijing - it was meh. There were a lot better foods you could get from street vendors. Like baozi, had lots of really good baozi.
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Re: Jianbing

Postby Matthew Notch » Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:05 pm

I bet there are good ones though, out there somewhere. If there really are a lot of vendors, there are a lot of variations, and someone's got to hit on something delish. One of the videos I saw added peanut crunch, which I think would be awesome.
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Re: Jianbing

Postby LaChaise » Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:46 pm

A friend's dad made some some time ago. It was pretty good, though not the best Chinese dish I've ever eaten.
I don't know if it was because we weren't in China (although IIRC he did have Chinese ingredients), but I thought it was basically the same thing as our galettes. Or rather my galettes, since I like to experiment and put random ingredients in them.

My favorite crêpe/pancake like thingies are kimchijeon, Korean kimchi pancakes and okonomiyaki, basically the same thing but Japanese. Just like you'd expect, there are as many ways to make these than you can come up with.




Shit, now I know what I'm making tomorrow night.
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Re: Jianbing

Postby Matthew Notch » Thu Jan 07, 2016 11:00 am

FRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK I MAY HAVE INVENTED THE BEST THING

So what do you think of this? It's still street food, but hear me out.

First, take a really moist, high gluten semolina dough and spread it on the spinning grill, nice and thin. Go ahead and break an egg or two on top and spread that out as well. Now add chopped fresh basil, oregano, and thyme, and Parmesan cheese, spread it out, then flip the crepe. On this side brush a thin layer of smooth homemade marinara, add a little chili sauce to the customer's taste, then diced tomatoes (I'm thinking a brunoise cut if it's doable) and minced garlic. Here, the customer can add toppings as he or she likes--Italian sausage, pepperoni, red onions, bell peppers, pancetta, etc. Now, add two big scoops of a mixture of fresh mozzarella and cottage cheese, and maybe mascarpone, I can't decide. Spread that, then top it all off with a layer of pasta chips. Fold, then fold in the edges, then fold again, put a crease in the middle, and put it in a pouch. It's like manicotti except you can carry it around and eat it while you're walking! Is this a terrible idea?

It was inspired by watching hours of jianbing videos, but it's hardly close to being one. It's also not really manicotti either, although it has some of the same ingredients. Actually, it's probably the most closely related to the piadina, although I would make the dough runnier just so it could be spread thin without having to be rolled out, and that might change the definition too. So I guess I have no idea what to call it. But I sort of want to make it now. And by that I mean I want to get a spinning grill and make it for people on the street. I bet this son of a gun would sell like hotcakes (if you'll pardon the pun) especially during the summer, in club season.

And I know using those Pasta Chips probably offends some people's sensibilities, but come on people, it's street food. I could call it the Notchetti, which sounds nice and might fool the more ignorant into thinking I made them a little known authentic Italian meal, but it also doesn't say much about what it is and may not sound as appetizing as I'd like. I'll have to think about it.
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"I desperately want Jiggery Pokery now."-- Pikajew

"I do feel that if she happens to favour attractive, successful, intelligent men I will be at a disadvantage."--Anglerphobe

"I have a beautiful sphincter and Mexico is gonna pay for it."--Kate
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