Fried egg pancake and breakfast in Tianjin

in #life6 years ago (edited)

Back again on my food soul searching journey in Tianjin and we're here with a special kind of "cake" which is a kind of egg flour pancake wrapped with some fruity goodness within. The chinese name for this little snack is actually a literal translation of that, "Fried pancake fruit wrap".

Needless to say, it is a snack that has evolved a lot through trial and error but also a lot of local creativity and imagination. Many people in Tianjin have taken the original egg pancake, and started to fill it with all sorts of wondrous fillings, taking the taste of them to a whole new level.

Like the restaurant I featured in the last post, this little restaurant is again a very people's restaurant, filled with.. people. It's a very underwhelming restaurant, and mostly for breakfast, but why judge something by it's exterior? You're going to eat right?

Clarence boiled eggs and fried dough sticks are quite a popular snack here. Particularly the fried dough sticks which are the go to breakfast food for people from the young to the old. It is often served with Soya milk drink which the sticks can be dipped in for extra taste.

People queuing up for their breakfast or lunch is a common site. This is the more popular venue in this district and people travel far and wide just to get their hands on the brilliant breakfast on offer here.

Pork buns are more of a lunch kind of snack, but they are useful because should they get cold, they can be put in the microwave to be heated again and taste just as good after storing it away for a few hours (even days).

Soups with wood ear and gochi are traditionally a medicinal soup for people who are feeling under the weather. But to avoid health issues, prevention is always better than a cure and thus people drink this soup all the time whether they are ill or not.

Flowery egg soup was a popular dish prior to people becoming wealthier. It's easy to make because you just break and egg into the plain water, add some garnishing and salt, and then it's ready. The fact that it was once a soup for the poor has not changed it's appeal. Years of drinking this has given people a certain attachment to their childhood foods.

Mochi style glutinous rice cake are quite a new snack, and it wasn't until glutinous rice became abundant that regular people could enjoy it. Of course, rice was also a type of food for filling the stomach and therefore in the old days, people used to eat it as a way to save money, using whatever kinds of stuffings and sauces they could to negate it's otherwise bland taste.

The fried egg pancake is what we all came here to eat. The flagship of this restaurant and indeed the food of this district. It is prepared on a hot metal circular stove and very quickly too. The flour mixture is poured and then an egg is broken over the top of it.

Egg pancake sliced and eaten with chopsticks instead of with your hands is an option if you feel like being more refined and eating at a table sitting down. I don't think people worry about being seen unclassy though, it is just a different way to enjoy a very tasty snack.

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