Northern Chinese Layered Bread

[Murphen]

A wonderful chinese restaurant in Seattle with an incredible name - Jack's Tapas Cafe (Mainly Chinese) - used to serve a slightly crispy on the outside, rather pliable on the inside, somewhat heavy/rich/oily, Sesame and Scallion Layered Bread. Where might we might something similar in NOVA/DC?

[flavrmeistr]

I can't remember the name of it, but there is a restaurant in the Festival Shopping Center on Muddy Branch in Gaithersburg that features "northern Chinese dim sum". They have a variety of scallion-loaded baked goods. In fact, almost everything on the menu contains scallions. While I'm not a fan of scallions per se, it might be worth checking out.

[wayne keyser]

Seems like almost every place serves it now. Pretty good version at Hong Kong Palace, where it's "Scallion Pancake".

[Kris in Beijing]

If they call it "scallion" and it does indeed have scallions/ onion/ shallot/ garlic IN it, then in the perpetually modified words of OB1,
these are not the loaves I'm looking for.

[ipsedixit]

You're looking for Chinese Islamic Sesame Bread (with or without green onions/scallions).

[Kris in Beijing]

Yeah, I knew what I really wanted was Uigher bread... but I don't recall any adornment other than what always seemed like too much oil once it got cold.

[ipsedixit]

This is what you want (and now I do too!).

[Kris in Beijing]

I.D.-- this is INTERESTING!! That's not what I want. No wonder I was so confused by people's excellent responses.

What I'm thinking about is much more like the Indian bread Laccha paratha-- layered coils of bread, "seasoned" only with [excess cooking?] oil.

I've been googling pretty heavily since I re-upped this thread and I still haven't found a good picture of what I mean, although I found THREE Uigher restaurants in Sydney [sob].

Maybe it's another Chinese "ethnicity" and not Uigher... I'll consult folks still in Beijing and see what they say.

EDIT
I found an "alomst" picture here:
http://bit.ly/161MWdM
which indicates it's bread from Shaanxi. Fascinatingly, it is directly Under a pic of something the photographer calls 1000 layer bread.
Whole page here: http://bit.ly/161N8th

[ipsedixit]

This?

But it's not Uygher.

[Kris in Beijing]

In the Lido area of Beijing, there is a strip of restaurants staffed almost entirely by Muslim/ Uigher workers... we got "pull bread" at several of those places all the time.
So, I must have confused the ethnicity of the employees with the origins of the menu : )
I'm positive one of the places had a genuine Uigher menu -- "big plate of chicken"-- dapanji (大盘鸡) was one of our favourites.

[zebcook]

Regardless of what Murphen is looking for, I miss Uigher bread. Used to get it at an Islamic Chinese place in SoCal. Anyone know where to find it between DC and Baltimore?

[ajyi2012]

A&J serve this. They call it thousand layer pancake.

[Kris in Beijing]

"Murphen" -- did you find your bread?

We are craving "pull bread" somewhat like this Thousand Layer Pancake Recipe near the bottom of this page:
http://www.acctgourmet.com/recipes.html

[hill food]

I try to follow that recipe link, but it just dies.

I will look into this for the next family potluck.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Thous...

[Kris in Beijing]

Here's a bitly for the same page.
http://bit.ly/161Y5LA

[chefj]

Are you talking about shou zhua bing , 这个好吃 ,手抓饼? I believe that in Taiwan it is called Thousand Layer Pancake. It is a speciality of Taiwan and is also made in Shanghai(though not as well) Sounds like "Steve" all ready suggested one place.

[Steve]

A & J is a restaurant chain from Taiwan, the zhua bing 抓饼 though is far from my favorite dish.

Also, my name really is Steve, so no need to put my name in quotations, like calling Paris Hilton "sensitive."

[chefj]

LOL

[Chemicalkinetics]

"Steve" Did you forget to put gas in your car?

[hill food]

I'm not going to be able to see his name again with-OUT quotation marks around it.

[nickdanger]

Have you been to any of the supermarkets like Great Wall or Lotte?

[Chemicalkinetics]

I agree with Steve and ahack. You are talking about the thick multi layer bread with sesame on the surface.

[chefj]

The dish that "Steve" mentioned is not the same as Sesame Scallion Bread (芝麻葱油大餅) that "ahack" linked to which is part of Chinese Islamic cuisine 清真菜. which is associated with Beijing and the North western provinces.

[ahack]

Is this what you're talking about? http://wlteef.blogspot.com/2009/06/sesame-scallion-bread.html

Sesame and Scallion Layered Bread: If you took a regular scallion pancake and inflated it to monstrous size, you'd get this focaccia-like bread, crisp and studded on the outside with sesame seeds. (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html...)

[Steve]

A & J in Annandale has soemthing called Zhua Bing, Thousand Layered Bread. They also have scallion pancakes.

[DSattler]

If you're describing what I think you are, the bread is called Chung Yao Bing, though often on menus it's termed Scallion Pancake. I've seen it with and without sesame seeds, and typically it's cut in wedges and dipped in a soy sauce. Is that what you mean? If so, it isn't common, but I've seen it as an appetizer on a few Chinese menus.