#AtoZChallenge in China: Jiānbing 煎饼

And now for our #AtoZChallenge in China, it’s a popular street food that’s cheap, tasty, and nutritious! That’s jiānbing 煎饼 or a crepe with a lot of indulgent flavors.

It’s not until November last year when I got to try my very first ever jiānbing after a late night shift. At first when I went to a jiānbing stall I thought, “Okay what kind of food is this?” because the vendor was putting a cream-like something on a big circular hot plate. I got curious so I tried it.
And yes… It’s so good!
J is for Jiānbing

Jianbing is one of Beijing’s – if not, China’s – most popular breakfasts and with good reason. A riot of flavors and textures, a jiānbing is a wheat or grain flour crepe cooked on a circular grilled then topped with an egg, chopped scallions and cilantro, sweet soy bean paste, and a piece of crispy wonton wrapper. This last element marks a jiānbing as being of the Shandong style (the province from which jiānbing originates), although you will also find Tianjin-style jiānbing around town, which are filled with youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks) instead.

Well, aside from that riot of flavor, a delectable jiānbing wrap is also said to be nutritious... there’s an egg and a mixture of vegetables which all have 357.3 calories and 15.5g of protein! Hmmm not bad I must say!
And just when you thought a jiānbing looks tasteless because of my photos… now, see these varieties courtesy of my friends at the Beijinger…

Don’t be fooled by the “blandness” of jiānbing; I must say it, along with chuan, are some of the street eats that give Beijing another flavor. An interesting tidbit about this street food from Serious Eats:

Jianbing have a longer history than almost any other Chinese street food. Thought to have originated in Shandong Province during the Three Kingdoms Period (220–280 AD), military strategist Zhuge Liang had his soldiers cook batter on shields held over the fire after their woks were lost.

So when you get into China, don’t forget to try a jiānbing! Try to impress the vendor too with this handy how-to-haggle guide (too fun reading that link; I used some of the phrases and surprisingly vendors can understand me!)
Thanks for reading! In tomorrow’s #AtoZChallenge in China, we’ll fast forward to summer and relax in a stunning vista in the city!
 
Featured image from Fiona Relly via Serious Eats. Photos of Jianbing guozi (煎饼果子), Shandong jianbing (山东煎饼), and Jidan guanbing (鸡蛋灌饼, egg-filled jianbing) from the Beijinger via Baidu.

See more of my #AtoZChallenge: Chinese Adventure