Mike's Chomping Cheesy Chinese Chow Challenge #6 – Shou Zhua Bing

Do not be alarmed. My cartoon picture for this blog post does make the Shou Zhua Bing (手抓饼) look like a deranged, evil clown with a skin problem. But I can assure you that the delectable shou zhua bing is one of my favourite street food snacks. Originally from Taiwan, the shou zhua bing is a soft and chewy pancake yet also crispy and flaky in all the right places.

There is usually a shou zhua bing vendor loitering outside my local subway station, making it a tasty and convenient pit stop before getting home. It should not be confused with the Ji Dan Guan Bing (鸡蛋灌饼) which is more commonly eaten as a breakfast wrap. Perhaps that will be a cheesy challenge for the future.

Once the shou zhua bing is heated and grilled, there are a number of ingredients that can be added before it gets wrapped and handed to you (inside a small handy bag in a vain attempt to stop the oil and other ingredients coating your hands). I decided to have an egg, chicken, lettuce and a ketchup-like sauce added to my bing (my Chinese teacher later explained to me that I should avoid choosing cheap meat in the future as it’s probably not a healthy option, so from now on it will probably be a vegetarian snack in the future).

On this particular momentously cutting-edge day I decided to embrace my inner-Blumenthal and add a new culinary masterpiece to my trailblazing cheesy challenge. I could have taken the easy route of grating cheese in my wrap. But grated cheese was already a successful pairing with my jian bing experiment. This time I wanted to be radical and revolutionise my shou zhua bing experience. I added actual slices of cheddar to my bing, before returning it to it’s rightful tortilla-esque wrap shape. Yes you read that correctly. I ADDED SLICED CHEDDAR.

It is difficult to express in words how wonderful this cheesy pancake encounter was. I suddenly felt overwhelmed by the taste sensation yet devastatingly desolate for people that will forever be eating cheese-less shou zhua bings. I almost ran back to the street vendor and slapped him with the remaining block of mature cheddar in the futile hope that he would see the future: cheesy bings.  Luckily, I calmed down and decided to get my priorities in check – I had to finish this cheesy shou zhua bing immediately before discussing it with others.

For now, I will keep this amazing discovery to myself (and anyone else lucky enough to stumble across this blog post. You’re welcome).

Gần đây tôi đã ăn shǒu zhuā bǐng và phô mai dày. Nó rất đậm đà! Nó có vị ngon đấy~