Scallion pancake with egg
I haven't had these in years. I think it was Little Shanghai who made them. Anybody know of a place that makes this variation on the scallion pancake?
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This is from an article in Time Out NY that was linked in a thread on the Outer Boroughs board:
"Chefs from the municipality of Tianjin, which shares the bread-making traditions of its western neighbor, Beijing, churn out classic chive-and-egg pancakes at Oriental Express Food (41-40 Main St between Sanford Ave and 41st Rd, Flushing, Queens; no phone). China’s answer to Hot Pockets (in Mandarin, the proper name means “chive pocket”), it’s a tender wheat crêpe folded over a fluffy scrambled egg, grassy garlic chives and slippery bean thread noodles. While you’re there, grab one of the superlative scallion pancakes."
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I think the names have been confused. A jianbing has 2 versions, one in north china and one in south china. These are the ones where they pour the batter on the griddle, crack and egg, add onions/cilantro, chili sauce, bean sauce, (add a cracker depending if you are north or south) etc.
A danbing is just a bing made with tons of eggs and onions or jiucai. If you go to either mainland or Taiwan and order a danbing, this is what you get. The danbing in Taiwan is thicker and in mainland, it is much thinner and made on a griddle like the jianbing is.
A scallion pancake that is crispy, pan fried and separates has two different names. In Taiwan, it is called congyoubing (onion oil pancake) and in mainland, it is called conghuabing (onion flower pancake). Depending on what part of China or what restaurant you are in, they will either add an egg to their conghuabing or not. This is a regional distinction. However, if you order a "danbing" you will not get an onion pancake with an egg.
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re: jinjin
actually i'm sure even in china they have more than just two versions. even in taiwan, the scallion pancake (not made with onion as jinjin said) can be made in different styles. dan-bing, at least in most breakfast place in taipei, consists of a thin layer or egg and was rolled in a tortilla like crepe (with bits of chopped scallions), usually was pan fried on a griddle and cut into bite size pieces. you can also have scallion pancake with egg, which is yet another thing from this, and the one with jiu cai or garlic chive (Allium tuberosum) with egg in a bing is yet another thing. we called it "jiu cai box" (what jesse refers to)in taiwan.
anyway, they are all delicious if made well.-
re: jhuang
designerboy01
Dec 26, 2006 02:39 AM
There are many versions of it, but I don't know which is the original recipe.
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re: jhuang
"even in taiwan, the scallion pancake (not made with onion as jinjin said) can be made in different styles"
I'm not sure if you meant that scallion pancakes can be made without onions, because the term "scallion" denotes that there are onions, or if I am reading your post wrong.
Jiucai hezi traditionally does not have egg in it and is not a pancake (it is about an inch to an inch and a half thick), therefore I did not mention it because the post referred to "scallion pancake with egg" and asked whether jianbing or danbing was the correct name. If you order a jianbing, danbing, or congyou(hua)bing, you will never get a jiucai hezi. If you order danbing, you won't get a jianbing, but it you order a jianbing you might get a congyou(hua)bing if you are in Taiwan but if you order a jianbing, you'll n ever get a conghuabing on Mainland.
to make life easier, you can ask for congyoubing jia (or he) dan just to make life easier for you if what you want is an scallion pancake with egg. Or a congyoubing jia (or he) danbing, which will give you scallion pancake with egg and jiucai.
Danbing in Taiwan has different versions, not always cut into bite sized pieces and not always rolled. It is thicker than in mainland (but again, China is vast so there are many different variations). My father is a chef who has been studying Chinese/Taiwanese cooking his whole life and there are hundreds of ways on just how to pan fry peanuts to eat with baijiu. You'll never be able to nail it down, trust me. I grew up in Taiwan and now live in China. Even restaurants that serve the same thing call it different names. For example, if you go to a hot pot place and order shahua, you get a freshly made shrimp ball. If you go to another hotpot place two doors over and order the same thing, they will look at you like you are crazy. They call it shaqiu or shawan and won't even be familiar with the name "shahua."
All I know is that congyoubing and conghuabing are the same thing (scallion pancake). jianbing is where they put cilantro, bean sauce, chili sauce, etc. But if you ask a Taiwanese person for jianbing, they will think you mean congyoubing (most my family lives in Taiwan and they aren't familiar with jianbing, neither is the Taiwanese population in Flushing, they all just pointed me to the scallion pancake stands). If you ask a person in Beijing for a conyoubing, they won't know what you are talking about because they only know it by the name conghuabing (trust me, when I first moved to China, I wasn't able to get a scallion pancake for the life of me until I learned the other name).
p.s. jianbing is also known as jianbing guozi to make life more complicated.
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re: jinjin
i'm just pointing out scallion and onion are not the same- or maybe you meant green onion? and your post is simply confirming what i said that there are many versions of danbing/egg crepe, regardless of what you called it. same thing could still be made differently with different styles.
and i don't think people are confusing garlic chive box with scallion pancake, they simply brought up more delicious items to discuss in this thread. things are not always made the same way they used to be made, and to have an open mind will enable us to enjoy things more. my two cents.
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re: jhuang
I don't think they are confusing jiucaihezi and conghuabing either, and I also stated that you'll never nail it down because there are hundreds of ways to make things. I hope your "open-minded" comment wasn't directed at me as I don't believe anything in my post suggested that I wasn't being open. thank you.
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some of the cheap dumpling spots in Chinatown offer something called a 'scallion pocket with scrambled egg' that's really more of a hockey puck shaped and sized bread/pastry with scrambled eggs and scallions inside that's incredible.. Tasty Dumpling, across from Columbus Park has it, as does Vanessa's Dumplings, on 14th between 2nd and 3rd (same owners, Vanessa's charges two dollars for the same 5 dumplings that Tasy sells for a buck).. they're great..
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designerboy01
Dec 8, 2006 02:46 AM
I don't know, but I always just look for the one that has a line on Saturday or Sunday morning. I suggest you got at 9:30am if you can. That is when they open. I went last week and was the first one in. The salty tofu soup is out of this world. Please be careful there are two types of salty tofu soup. I'll try to go there this weekend and try to get the information just for you guys and for my appetite.
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Not sure if you are referring to a version of pancakes with scallions and egg called JianBing, but we thought you might be interested in seeing pictures taken earlier this year of JianBing, which we enjoyed very much from a street vendor in Beijing. These versions of the scallion pancakes are very soft and quite different from the sturdier typical scallion pancakes sold in NYC, which are more bread-like than a pancake.
The JianBing is very popular in Beijing and China and is a common street vendor food. The vendor will ladle the flour mix onto the hot griddle, than sprinkle scallions and/or cilantro upon the cooking pancake, and than crack an egg or two (two eggs cost more of course) onto the cooking pancake, flip once and than after it is cooked, will brush some bean paste and put a piece of fried crisp bread onto the pancake, and than fold the pancake up into a nice tidy package for immediate eating while hot. We ate them (burning our tongue) a number of times while in Beijing and found them quite good. The scallion pancakes usually cost 1 to 2 Yuan (approx. $1=Y8).
We were not aware of any “street vendors” that make them in any of the NYC Chinatowns, but according to the earlier post in this thread by Teresa, the King5 Noodle restaurant on Prince Street has them. We will have to try the JianBing’s there to bring back memories of our trip to China earlier this year.
The pictures of a Beijing street vendor making scallion pancakes with egg (this vendor made very large scallion pancakes; most scallion pancakes are usually smaller) are below:
http://images.filecloud.com/296111/BeijingPancakeVendor-730.jpg
http://images1.filecloud.com/296113/BeijingPancakeVendor2-731.jpgSurprisingly, we found several YouTube videos that show JianBings being made in China which are much better than our static pictures:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MPSTIUfAd8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZC3iS9_bJY
And at Gary Soup’s EatingChinese website and Forum, there are two more YouTube videos for those who have not been sated with the previous two videos, which show the northern and southern styles of JianBing and also provides further information about the crispy bread put in the middle of the pancake: http://www.eatingchinese.org/phpbb2/v...
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re: lwong
Glad to help... and I must thank all of you for giving these "scallion pancakes w/ an egg" a legitimate name for me. i had no idea they were authentic nor do I know how i've missed them in the countless chinese restaurants i've visited in nyc not to mention chinatowns throughout the US. Oh, and i wouldn't rush over to try these at ollie's. i don't think you will find these especially authentic. there are several ollie's in nyc but i am almost certain the one near columbia is the only one who throws in the egg.
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re: nativeNYer
You did not miss seeing the JianBings in the “countless Chinese restaurants,” as we have not encountered any restaurants offering JianBings either all these years (and we are Asian also). JianBings are literally street vendor food and we did not encounter the JianBings ourselves until we visited Beijing.
According to the post by “designerboy01” in this thread, the JianBing’s or Dan Bings that were served in the King5Noodle restaurant were missing the crispy crackers. Does Ollie’s have the crispy crackers inside the JianBings as shown in the YouTube videos listed in our previous post? Without the crispy cracker, the JianBing as shown in the videos would just not have the same texture and taste where one first bites into the soft outside pancake and then encounters the crispy cracker taste.
Somehow the whole allure of JianBing’s and all good street food in general is that not only do they taste good, but that one enjoys a free show in seeing them being made and than one gets to eat them hot off the griddle.
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re: lwong
I really must go to Beijing then. Maybe one day, I hope!
Ummm... crackers? Well, I can definitely see how crackers would make these pancakes outstanding but I really don't think there are crackers in the ones served at Ollies. It doesn't seem like something that would be easy to miss. Basically, at Ollie's, they shove some egg in the usual SC batter with scallions. Oh well... now you've piqued my interest completely and totally. Off topic: in your opinion, where in the city would you say the best fried dumplings are in Manhattan? I'd also like to know where the best fried dumplings are on the UWS if you ever dine up this way. THANKS!!
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re: nativeNYer
Unfortunately, Manhattan is not our stamping ground, since we usually shop and eat in Flushing, hence we do not have any suggestions for the “best fried dumplings” in Manhattan. We use to go to a restaurant in the Flushing Chinatown called “Spring Moon,” that had good fried dumplings with open ends similar to the JPG at http://www.eatingchinese.org/bbspix/exem04.jpg. According to Gary Soup in his posting http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/306538, fried dumplings with open ends is very authentic and can be found in Shanghai. However, the restaurant “Spring Moon” that we had just mentioned above, closed several years ago.
However, if you enjoy soupy dumplings, as of this summer, the restaurant "Nanxiang Xiao Long Bao" (in Chinese; the English name is simply “Noodle House”) in Flushing, has reasonably good Xian Long Bao’s (while the soup and skin are good, the texture of the inside meat is a little tough), and the post above with Gary Soup discusses the “Noodle House” restaurant along with this post at http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/....
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re: lwong
thanks. i was raised in queens and my parents now live on long island. so i know flushing very well and look forward to trying these places soon. i had no idea that the dumplings with liquid inside were soup dumplings. i've really gotten an education from this post. thanks all!!
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re: lwong
There are errors in the links that we provided. At the "eating chinese" link, there is a "period" at the end of the link address that needs to be deleted.
For the two "chowhound" links, there is a "comma" after the 306538 link that needs to be deleted, and a "period" after the 249260 link that should also be deleted.
Sorry for the error in causing anyone to unable to link to the websites.
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re: lwong
inmandarin
Dec 12, 2006 07:25 PM
are you referring to "DaBing Bao XiaoBing?" the "crispy-cracker" is like fried and sugary. i've had this in taiwan. although, the way they make it in taiwan, they'd add flavored powder on it (such as taro powder, black sesame powder, chili powder, ro-song, etc.) i highly doubt we'll be able to find any of that in NY....or America.
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re: inmandarin
We have no knowledge of the name of the crispy cracker that is inside the JianBing pancake, but do these "DaBing Bao XiaoBing” look like the crispy crackers placed in the JianBing pancakes in the YouTube videos in our previous post?
Yes, we do not remember seeing any crispy crackers in any of the NYC Chinatowns that look like the ones in the YouTube videos or the ones we ate in Beijing. If they would be available in any Chinatown, it would probably be in the Flushing one, since Flushing is primarily northern and Taiwan Chinese, and like you, we doubt that any restaurant NYC has these crispy crackers.
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teresa
Nov 15, 2006 04:32 AM
I know this is the Manhattan board, but the only place I've been able to find these treats outside of Taiwan is in Flushing. I know the King 5 Noodle on Prince Street has it in their breakfast menu on the weekend. You need to go before 1pm. They might even offer it everyday now.
I usually make my own "dan bing" by using JHuang's method. It doesn't taste as good, but it's better than nothing!
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re: teresa
designerboy01
Dec 3, 2006 02:32 PM
I just went to King5 noodle for breakfast and its true they got the dan bing. I get the impression this restaurant is Northern Chinese from the jar of cabbabe on the table for condiments. Someone at my table also confirmed this with the waitress. I ordered the salty tofu curds, dan bing, and the beef rolled in sesame (cut in three pieces), and the open mouth dumplings. I'll eat this over waffles, bagels, or eggs anyday. But I had better at another place before. The skin on the dumplings where not crispy but soggy. I was expecting to see the Dan Bing with a piece of fried dough inside but its not there. Someone at my table order the salty soy soup but it didn't look like it had all the ingredients that I'm used to seeing. The salty tofu soup starts off as soy milk and vinegar is added to it and the soup coagulates. Its a really great breakfast. But definitely King 5 isn't the best I had in Flushing, although it was still satisfying. Note this is only served in the morning.
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re: designerboy01
teresa
Dec 4, 2006 03:44 PM
Where did you go for better breakfast? Usually, my family has dim sum for brunch. I've been to Taiwan, so I know that the dan bing here will never be as good. I just went to Nan Xiang Long Bao and I noticed they also have a lot of breakfast foods. I wonder if it's any good?
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re: teresa
designerboy01
Dec 7, 2006 05:47 AM
I'm very sorry that I don't have the exact address. But its on 40th Road in flushing, betwen Prince and Main Street.
Its on the same side of the street where the Bing Lady was originally. Or across the street from Shanghai Tide/Bakery.You won't miss it if you go in the morning on a Saturday or Sunday because there will be a line of people waiting for a table. You have to order the salty tofu soup. Just be careful they got two kinds. One is with water tofu and one has vinegar added to it and it co-agulates the tofu. The latter is the one you should get. Some people like my Uncle who was much older likes the water tofu. For someone like him who has traveled a lot and almost went everyday to this place says when visiting my family says something...at least to me. I think that is the best breakfast next to dim sum on a weekend. If I get the address I'll post it up. I may be there this weekend. FYI, they only serve this menu from 9:30am till 1pm or 2pm.
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re: designerboy01
designerboy01
Dec 9, 2006 05:25 PM
OK for that salty tofu soup you have to go to a shop that is to the left of a big Yellow sign that says Wine with some chinese characters. I don't know the translation for the sign that is out in front.
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re: designerboy01
inmandarin
Dec 12, 2006 06:12 PM
hey what ever happened to the BING LADY??? i used to go there for bing all the time. i tried taking my friends there once over the summer, and i saw nothing but signs up. i was given the impression that she's renovating, but it's been quite a while now.... any news?
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re: inmandarin
designerboy01
Dec 12, 2006 07:16 PM
She went big time on 3rd Street on 6th Avenue. From what I heard on this board she may not be doing well. Her Manhattan location is called Roll and Dough. She does have a relative in Flushing that sells her Bing in a small mall on main street across the street from a supermarket called Golden <blah blah>. I forgot the name but if you were to walk from the train station its past the library and past the post office and then you will see an Asian Supermarket . Go across the street and you will see a blue awning. When you walk in one of Bing Lady's people will be on your right as you walk in. There is a sign in English selling Bing.
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re: designerboy01
I hope you're not referring to Mrs. Ting having health troubles when you say she may not be doing well. If all you mean is that some people don't like the bing, that's their business. I was a regular at her place in Flushing and the couple of times I've been to the place in the Village, the bing have seemed exactly the same as the ones I used to get in Flushing.
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re: Pan
designerboy01
Dec 13, 2006 03:18 AM
No I meant that business for her may not be doing well at her village location.
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re: designerboy01
inmandarin
Dec 7, 2006 04:24 PM
"Dan Bing with a piece of fried dough inside" - are you referring to dan-bing-jia-youtiao?
http://static.flickr.com/121/30804851...
i had this in taipei recently. so you're saying that king5noodle doesn't have this, but does that other place you recommend have it?
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re: inmandarin
designerboy01
Dec 7, 2006 04:26 PM
They don't have it. I'm on a search for it too, but I don't have high hopes.
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re: inmandarin
nice pictures.....<homesicking>...there are actually two kinds of scallion pancakes, these are the one closer to the ones that lwong mentioned (jian-bing in China), thiner dough and are soft are crepe like, we usually call them "dan-bing" in Taiwan; then there are the ones with thicker dough that requires more oil to kind of pan fry it to a bit of crunch on the outside- it should sound like "tsong-yiu-(dan)-bing" for "scallion-oil-(egg)- pancake"
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re: jen kalb
designerboy01
Dec 20, 2006 03:17 AM
I don't even know who Jim Leff is. All I know is their salty tofu soup is one of da best. And forget about Tasty, Dumpling or Prosperity in terms of dumplings. They are stuffed with neat and they are called open mouth dumplings(straight translation). They got sesame pancake there wrapped with beef, rolled or cut into smaller pieces as well as other dishes.
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re: designerboy01
bigjeff
Jan 5, 2007 10:39 PM
how are they in comparison to the old place on roosevelt (that eventually moved to the road behind roosevelt, and eventually closed), that had the best breakfast foods: salty soy milk, radish pastries (luo-buo-shi-bing), you-tiao, and also the fan-tuan, which is the sticky rice wrapped around you-taio, plus fried pork and pickled mutard, and all that good stuff. I think the name was Szechuan Capital or something like that; closed about 2 years ago and I haven't had a good salty soy milk since.
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re: jen kalb
squid kun
Dec 20, 2006 09:03 AM
I seem to recall that Jim did say his guy was connected with the King Fives when they opened. Apparently he was a gifted chef who graduated to restaurateur/fixer. He would parachute in before opening to set up the menu and get the kitchen staff up to speed. But it's unclear how much time he spends at a restaurant once it's up and running.
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When I used to live in Taipei I often had this for snack or even breakfast, and it's one of the things I missed the most. Now I just bought the frozen scallion pancake dough from supermarkets in Chinatown, and add eggs while pan frying the pancake. Not the same, but it's a satisfying midnight snack none the less.
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