shanghai postcard #24: jian bing
It's been a while since I wrote to you with a postcard from home!
As the weather gets colder, the street food vendors are changing with the seasons as well. Summer's stinky tofu vendor is Winter's roasted-sweet-potato-out-of-a-40-gallon-metal-drum vendor. The lady selling fruit slices in July is now roasting chestnuts using a huge wok full of hot pebbles.
On thing that remains the same is breakfast. The jian bing is perpetual. A layer of crunchy batter, followed by a egg which fries in place, onions, cilantro, plum sauce, and finally a deep-fried cracker, all folded up and served in a clear plastic bag for less than a U.S. dollar. It's pretty great.
It almost makes up for missing Thanksgiving. Almost.