Spring Bing: Wrap Up the Last of Winter

The world’s premiere weather rodent, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow on Groundhog Day this year, which pushes back the advent of spring to around mid- March. Surely that’s too long to wait? Time to take matters into your own hands … by having yourself some chunbing!

As far back as the Jin dynasty, chunbing (“spring pancakes”) were the commoners’ way of welcoming the verdant season; they would roll an assortment of meat and vegetables into a thin doughy wrapper so they could “bite the spring” (咬春). Some say it’s a prayer for a good year of planting and harvesting. I say they were showing the earth who’s boss.

At Chunbing Jingwei Cai, a lean swarthy gentleman will gladly point out the variety of ways you can pound your pancakes. A set of ten plain flour wrappers is RMB 8, but you can go fancy with a variety pack (RMB 12) that includes bing infused with essence of carrot, spinach and purple rice.

You can then pick from dozens of fillings. On their menu, ingredients like bean sprouts, beancurd, chive, vermicelli and egg feature prominently in various combinations. Our favorite, the “mixed vegetables wearing a hat” (hecai daimao 合菜 戴帽, RMB 16), is a stir-fry of all of them, with a tender omelet serving as the cap. The sprout, egg and shrimp filling (nongjia chao sanxian 农家炒三鲜, RMB 18) was similarly mild yet satisfying, though beware – the crustaceans can be a little pokey. Ground pork with potherb mustard greens (肉碎雪里红, RMB 12) was pleasantly spicy and acidic, but might work better on a hill of rice than in the thin wrapper. We didn’t try the stir-fried duck meat – if we’d wanted duck in pancakes we’d have gone somewhere else.

Once you’ve chopsticked a generous amount of filling onto your pancake, then rolled it up nice and fat and stuffed it in your mouth, it’s hard to deny the delightful power trip of taking a bite out of spring. The doughy pancake pulls, vermicelli stretches and snaps, egg yields and sprouts crunch until it’s devoured in two or three bites and you’re ready for another.

Chunbing Jingwei Cai Daily 10am-11pm. 153 Yonghegong Dajie (opposite Cafe de la Poste), Dongcheng District (6406 2183) 春饼京味菜，东城区雍和宫大街153号

Click here to see the March issue of the Beijinger in full.