Small plate · China
Scallion pancakes
Flaky pan-fried flatbreads laced with scallions.
About the dish
Scallion pancakes, cong you bing in Mandarin, are a Chinese street food and breakfast, popular across China and Taiwan. Despite the name, they are not made from a batter: they are an unleavened flatbread made from a dough.
The dough is flour mixed with hot water, which makes it softer and easier to roll thin than a cold-water dough. It is rolled into a sheet, brushed with oil or a paste of oil and flour, scattered with chopped scallions and salt, then rolled up into a rope, coiled into a snail and flattened again. Each fold traps oil between thin sheets of dough, and in the pan those sheets separate into flaky layers.
They are pan-fried in a generous film of oil until golden and crisp, and some cooks push the edges in or slap the hot pancake to loosen the layers. The flavor is simple: salt, the richness of the oil and the sweet, mild onion of the scallions. A dip of soy sauce and vinegar is common.
Written from general cooking knowledge, as background on a dish from the game’s recipe book. It is not a tested recipe.
The flavors it leans on
Scallion pancakes in Night Kitchen
In the game, Scallion pancakes is a small plate in the recipe book. A plate is named Scallion pancakes when it holds these cards and is cooked with exactly this technique, with at most one extra ingredient.
Ingredients
- Scallions
- Flour
Technique
- Fry
How those cards taste
Cooked from just these cards for an average ticket, before tonight’s mood and quirks, it would please Odile (2 stars) most.
More small plates
- CevichePeru and the Pacific coast of Latin AmericaRaw fish firmed in lime juice, with onion and chili.
- PotstickersNorthern ChinaPork and cabbage dumplings browned on the bottom and steamed on top.
- HummusThe LevantChickpeas blended smooth with tahini and lemon.
- Patatas bravasMadrid, SpainFried potatoes under a hot tomato sauce, a Spanish bar staple.
- Garlic shrimpSpainShrimp sizzled in oil with garlic and chili, the Spanish gambas al ajillo.
- GravlaxScandinaviaSalmon cured under salt, sugar and dill, sliced thin.
- Smashed cucumber saladChinaCucumbers cracked open and dressed with vinegar and garlic.