Jian Bing, breakfast of expats

... and y'know millions of Chinese citizens too.  A few years ago I was teaching in China and on my daily walk to work there was a woman with a little food cart set up on the corner just before I got to the school. Being adventurous and not really doing a great job of feeding myself in those bachelor days, I tried her wares and they were pretty darn good. But I never really learned the name of what I was eating and after moving back to Canada the memory of those delicious (and cheap!) breakfasts faded.  Until a friend of mine recently moved to Beijing and talked about the food cart she saw on her way to work. This brought back the memories and a little bit of unexpected nostalgia. So thanks to the googles I was able to easily learn that I had been eating Jian Bing, a crêpe-like base with an egg cooked on top and various toppings of the customer's choice wrapped up inside so it looked kind of like a burrito.


Inspired, I continued my research and decided I would try to replicate that delicious dish here in Northern Alberta and stretch my culinary comfort zone a little bit.  I basically followed this recipe and managed to churn out something resembling the Jian Bing I had in Tianjin by my third and fourth tries (I didn't have the wherewithal to take pictures before we ate, I'm still new to this whole blogging business).

My first attempt was too small, too thick, and impossible to fold. I found the batter to be too viscous and so I added some extra water to thin it out a bit. That helped immensely on my second try and things were looking good until I had to flip the thing. It folded up into itself and ended up kind of mangled.  After that I more or less got the hang of the flipping and they turned out pretty presentable if I do say so myself.

From the food stand I would frequent the topping choices were crushed chilis, some pickled vegetables (whose identities I was never confident I'd discerned) cut in thin strips, and a couple slices of grilled mystery meat.

The ingredients I used, based on what was available at the local supermarket were as follows:

• hoisin sauce (like it said in the recipe) I had a little basting brush thing that I used to spread it onto the surface.
• I used a healthy dose of Sriracha sauce instead of Chinese chili sauce. I'd maybe squeeze the bottle a little lighter next time.
• I did use green onions but not cilantro because I couldn't find any at the store plus Mrs. ISMOTU isn't a big cilantro fan anyway. 
• To replace the weird little pickles I found a jar of Bick's Hot Mix mixed vegetable pickles, which I didn't know existed, and sliced them as skinny as possible.
• Instead of a Chinese donut or other fried pastry I used some fresh bean sprouts to add a bit of a crunch.
• Since I had no idea what kind of weird Chinese meat product I'd been consuming I went for a Canadian twist and bought a can of Klik (25% less fat variety). I sliced it thinly and tossed it onto our electric grill.

So I eventually managed to create something that looked good but did it let us down in the flavour department? Nope! While not an identical flavour sensation, my Jian Bing made for a delicious breakfast on a lazy Saturday morning. My folding skills were not as advanced so we ate our Jian Bing with a knife and fork but they got the "tasty" seal of approval from my wife.  Next time I think I would tone down the spiciness just a bit, it wasn't crazy hot but it was edging into the uncomfortable burn territory.  I'm also not sure about the texture of the crêpe part. It's been over two years since I was in China so my memory is fuzzy on how thick they were there but the ones I made were about the consistency of a Finnish pancake rather than a traditional French crêpe. I think it worked and Mr.s ISMOTU agreed but I might experiment with the thickness in the future. 

So that turned into a bit of an epic post but it was fun and I'm glad I decided to document it here. As a reward for those of you who've made it to the end here's a video I found showing Jian Bing being made in Beijing: