Street food & snacks · North / East China
Cong You Bing (Scallion Pancake)
葱油饼 — Flaky scallion flatbread, laminated with oil and flour paste and fried till the layers shatter — the breakfast of the northern and eastern street, four for a…
The technique is lamination: dough rolled with a scallion-oil-flour paste, coiled, reflattened and fried so the layers separate into shattering strata. Shanghai’s versions run thin and crisp with a soft middle; Beijing and Xi’an run thicker and doughier with more char.
The best cong you bing come off a griddle you can hear — the vendor flattens the dough with a rolling pin against the hot iron. Shanghai’s old-lane stalls (the ones with line-ups at 7 a.m.) and Xi’an’s Muslim Quarter griddles are the reference points; eat immediately, burning your fingers is part of the experience.
Where to eat it
- Old-lane breakfast griddles in Shanghai
- Xi’an Muslim Quarter stalls
- Beijing hutong breakfast carts
Named tables that do it well
- Xin Rong Ji (Xinyuan South Road) — Michelin 3 Stars
- Chao Shang Chao — Michelin 3 Stars
- Jing Ji — Michelin 2 Stars
- King’s Joy — Michelin 2 Stars
Routes that eat their way here
More dishes to know
- Big Plate Chicken (Dapanji) (大盘鸡)
- Lanzhou Hand-Pulled Beef Noodles (兰州牛肉面)
- Dumplings (饺子)
- Jianbing (煎饼果子)
- Roujiamo (肉夹馍)
- Xinjiang Lamb Skewers (烤羊肉串)