A Beijing Breakfast (Part I)

Well, as I’ve said before, my favorite Beijing breakfast item here is the “jian bing” (tones: jian1 bing3). “Jian” means “fried in shallow oil,” and “bing” means “a round flat cake.” People make them differently in other parts of China, as I found when I was able to try Tianjin’s style while I was there last month. Today, I had another one here in Beijing, and it was delicious! Here’s my observation of how they make them:

Step #1: Scrub stone skillet to clean off scraps from previous order
Step #2: Pour batter (apparently made from millet flower) on hot stone skillet
Step #3: Gently spread out batter as it cooks and quickly becomes a nice crepe
Step #4: Crack an egg over the crepe and evenly spread it out
Step #5: Add green onions and other green herbs
Step #6: Flip crepe over so the side with the egg and green onions is on the bottom
Step #7: Add brown sauce and hot sauce (if desired) on the top (Hot sauce is the best!)
Step #8: Add crunchy fried square-shaped crisp in the middle (The crisp has no strong flavor, as far as I can tell.)
Step #9: Fold crepe over the square crisp
Step #10: Break crisp into 3 pieces
Step #11: Fold into a nice easy to eat little package
Step #12: Put in clear plastic bag and hand it to the customer
Step #13: Take cash from customer
[Currently, they are 2RMB (which is around USD$0.25) everywhere I’ve had them in Beijing.]

ENJOY!!! Mmmmm...it’s so delicious! On a chilly morning, like today, the hot “jian bing” feels great going down!

So, whenever you’re in Beijing, you MUST try one!