Those of you who scroll through FB videos at night will probably have seen these Chinese pancake videos floating around. Especially if you are a foodie and look at food videos all the time. I am guilty of that and for the longest time, I have been wanting to try the Chinese-styled savoury crepe pancake but only when we can start travelling to China
Imagine my delight when I chanced upon this takeaway stall in the basement of One Raffles Place selling Chinese crepe pancakes. Known as Jian Bing, these crepes are one of the most popular breakfast options in China. With almost every neighbourhood boasting their own favourite Jian Bing vendor, these crepes are made from wheat and mung bean flour base, topped with eggs. fresh vegetables, the meat of choice and crispy wonton skins. Originally from Shandong or Tianjin province, these are now found widely in China with a slight variation in flavours depending on the region
The ones offered here at Crispy Bing include both meat and vegetarian options; where the meat options have roasted duck, char siew pork and spicy crayfish as toppings. Those looking for non-meat options can go for the plain or plant-based chicken versions. Those who have a sweet tooth can go for the sweet banana version
The traditional Jian Bing is made of mung bean crepe coated with scrambled egg, sesame seeds, scallions, hoisin sauce, crispy chilli sauce, fresh cucumbers, salad greens, cilantro and crispy wantons
Watching the Jian Bing being made is quite therapeutic as it starts from the making of the paper-thin crepe. Comparing the way the crepe is made to the videos of those made in China, the crepe doesn’t seem to be spread out smoothly but luckily the end result was still a very thin and crispy crepe. The egg is next spread onto the crepe followed by the different toppings
As I did not eat my Jian Bing immediately and my office was at least an hour away, I expected the crispy crepe to be soft by the time I eat it so I decided to take a picture of the freshly made ones. The Jian Bing is cut into half and put into these brown paper pockets for easy eating. The crepe itself is crispy like a waffle biscuit and overflowing with ingredients
This is the condition of the Jian Bing an hour later where you can tell the crepe is soft and no longer crispy and this proves to be a problem as it is messy to bite into the Jian Bing with ingredients and sauce dripping out. You can see from the last picture it was a bit squishy to hold onto the Jian Bing once the crepe turns soft. Some plus point is that the crispy wanton was still slightly crispy and the vegetables were fresh and crunchy
I ordered 1 traditional version as well as the roast duck version. The sauce for the traditional version was more of a sweet savoury brown sauce with mayonnaise whereas the sauce for the roast duck version tasted more like those used for Peking duck. Overall, I like how the entire crepe is balanced with crunch from the wanton and vegetables, sweetness and savoury from the sauce and meat. Personally, I really liked the taste of the Jian Bing although the price of the duck version at SGD 14 was slightly pricey. I will personally try the Jian Bing again while it is fresh and crispy again
Address: One Raffles Pl, B1-21, Singapore 048616
Operating hours: 10 am to 8 pm ( Closed on Sat and Sun)
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