It was only a matter of time before the jianbing came to New York. The city obsessed with breakfast and brunch was bound to catch onto China's favorite streetfood breakfast.
After a frustratingly long absence from New York's food scene, Grub Street reports that jianbing businesses suddenly seem to be popping up everywhere around the city. The Flying Pig opened for business at the end of last year, while the Jianbing Company will host a pre-launch party later this month. And then there's Mr. Bing, a stall run by Brian Goldberg, a New Yorker who fell in love with the scallion pancake snack while studying in Beijing.
Goldberg started Mr. Bing in Hong Kong, where he sold the popular pancake for HKD50 a pop (around ten times the price of a standard jianbing in the Mainland). But Goldberg had always planned to take it back home and determined to perfect the dish he had enjoyed so much in China. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, he said that he had brought in a ‘master jiangbing maker’ to train his staff. Some of his versions are not entirely traditional — there is a bacon, egg and Swiss cheese one on offer — but he also offers the classic jianbing.
Goldberg, along with the owners of The Flying Pig and Jianbing Company, should hope that Chinese users don’t hear of his new stall. They were less than pleased about Bing Mi!, a jianbing food cart that opened in Portland in May of last year. One complained about Americans’ lack of respect for “intellectual property rights” – apparently missing the irony. “I’m guessing the sweet fermented sauce has been swapped out with ketchup and salad dressing,” wrote another.
Sorry New York, but China liked jianbing before it was cool.
[Image via Grubstreet, h/t Alec Ash]
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