One bing to rule them all, one bing to find them,
One bing to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
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| What the devil is this bing you speak of? |
Good question Bingley, please allow me to explain. A bing 饼 is a Chinese pancake, or a general term for round, flattish foods. My particular favourite is the jianbing 煎饼果子, a crêpe like creation folded into a parcel and bursting with Chinese ingredients and flavour. Where can you purchase one, I hear you ask. Apparently London now has its own bing stall. I've heard bubble tea and baozi are the new hipster foods, so get ahead of the hipsters and jump on the bing bandwagon.
This is Mrs Gao and her bing stand. When I say 'stand', it's a cross between a mini-kitchen and a tricycle. These tricycles set up outside, normally by university campuses, selling a huge variety of Chinese street food. Mrs Gao, or Aunty Gao as she lets me call her, has been making her bings for well over ten years. She sells between 200 to 300 bings a day, from 3.5yuan to 5yuan per bing. Hold the calculators, I'll convert for you. Yes, 35p to 50p for a meal. Delicious, nutritious, and... parsimonious?
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| Mrs Gao starts by pouring a small ladle of bing mix onto a hot plate |
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| Then she spreads the batter over the plate evenly using the same tool as crêpe makers |
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| Then she breaks an egg over the top, spreads it out, and waits for it to cook |
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| Once the egg is cooked, she flips the bing over |
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| On the new side, she first spreads sesame sauce and, for the brave, chilli sauce. Then she adds some kind of crunchy savoury wafer (which I don't know the name of yet) and lettuce |
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| To finish, she adds spicy beancurd cut into thin strips and a dash of spring onion. Then she folds it up and sends you on your way |
By the way, this is my 50th blog post! Thanks for sticking with me this far!
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