Food Dilettante in Manchuria

I will be posting from Northeastern China for about 3 months, so bear with me Austinites. I shall post about food in Austin later in the Fall.

Northeastern 东北 cuisine is known to be heavy, salty, oily, flour based, and generally unrefined. My friend told me that someone here told her that that was the reason why the Manchurians invaded China and established the long Qing dynasty. They wanted better food. Ah, food can be such a motivator!

In my crazy jet lagged condition, I wandered into the street in front of my residence at 6:00 AM to find a bustling street market. I was on a quest to find breakfast that would not inflict bowel movement on my tired and not quite acclimated body.

Usually street vendors should not be a place to get a first meal in a foreign country, but this bing 饼,savory pancake, vendor looked like such a typical Northeastern spot that I just had to try it.

The pancake master used a very pliable dough, which he stretched into thin sheets and slathered in a special oil concoction before rolling the sheets into a pain aux raisins shape.

He then placed each shaped dough onto a griddle and fryed them.

The result was a crispy, flakey, satisfying breakfast, which would taste even better if I had some black vinegar and hot chili paste in which to dip each morsel. I dared not use the condiments at the vendor.