I have been obsessed with Jian Bing for YEARS. Somehow a jian bing video popped up on my YouTube feed once and then I fell into like a vortex of videos. I’ll post some of my favorites at the end of the post. So what is jian bing? I guess the best way I can explain it would be a Chinese street food, a large savory crepe that is used to house a special sauce, won ton cracker, veggies, meat (sometimes), egg, etc. It’s like a Chinese burrito and is very cheap to grab and go with in China for breakfast. Well, it has finally arrived in Hawaii and I was very excited to try it.
Okay, so I picked a very bad time to try it. It was the week a big article was released about it. Bing Bros currently only opens on Saturdays for 4 hours in Salt Lake, at that time, they were still taking pre-orders on their website so I placed one in for three different jian bings to try. I requested for my order to be complete by 11:30 AM and as the time crept closer, it looked like they were going to be slammed. Well, they were. And well, let’s just say I didn’t get my order until about 12:30 PM. Wasn’t terribly happy about that delay but understand since they are new.
Regular Jian Bing | $10.00
egg, romaine lettuce, pickled mustard cabbage, wonton cracker, cucumber, green onions, cilantro, bing sauce, and chili sauce
The Works | $13.00
pork floss, lup cheong, egg, romaine lettuce, pickled mustard cabbage, won ton cracker, cucumber, green onions, cilantro, bing sauce, and chili sauce
Go big or go home right? I sacrificed the look of the jian bing and opened it up for you folks to see. I enjoyed it, how can I not enjoy pork floss and lup cheong? What did I think of the outer crepe? Ehh…perhaps it can’t be helped but the crepe gets very soft and soggy because there is sauce on it. I feel like jian bing needs to be enjoyed fresh off the grill. I also would have liked if the cabbage (there seemed to be regular shredded cabbage too on top of the preserved mustard cabbage ) was at least quickly pickled.
Hawaiian Breakfast | $13.00
spam, two eggs, portuguese sausage, romaine lettuce, pickled mustard cabbage, wonton cracker, cucumber, green onions, cilantro, bing sauce, and chili sauce
Another deluxe model, had to try the Hawaiian one! This was good, couldn’t tell there were two eggs (lol). Very small dices of spam and portuguese sausage. The prices to me is a bit high for what you get. And when I look at the website, their menu is already outdated and I paid $3 bucks more for each deluxe dish. They do have bigger plans for the future so hopefully they will get their orders and execution down, nice for me to try but I am not hankering to go back anytime soon.
YouTube Links:
China Street Food Jian Bing (Danbing)
Shanghai China – street food (crepe) – this one is funny cause the cook is so cranky lol
Bejing Jianbing (first video I ever saw on this)