Nanjing's Famous Duck-Fat Shaobing
Over on the east side of China, Zoe Yang had her eyes on a small shaobing shop that always has a queue. She brings us this recipe for one of Nanjing's most famous snacks, which she and her mom, Iris Zhao, have been perfecting for years in their home kitchens:
"Shaobing simply means 'roasted bread,' and the name’s broadness offers a clue to its history: Prior to contact with outsiders from Central Asia and the Middle East, China’s repertoire of wheat foods were all boiled or steamed. Baked cakes, breads and bings did not exist. Then, sometime in the early CE centuries, migrants and traders from the West brought many food items into imperial China—such as black pepper (hujiao), carrots (huluobo) and cucumbers (hugua)—many of which still have the word “barbarian” (hu) in their names. They also brought clay-oven technology and introduced the first baked breads, which were flatbreads similar to modern pita, pide or naan. China now has a plethora of baked wheat goods, but shaobing feels close to those Middle Eastern roots: still flatish in shape, still often tandoor-baked, still crusted in sesame seeds (another import from Central Asia).
"Beyond those shared elements, regional shaobing variations abound. In Nanjing, the duck capital of China, cooks use duck fat to laminate shaobing dough the way a patissier in Paris uses butter to make a flaky croissant. When I finally tasted the shaobing that inspired that long line in my neighborhood, I understood the fuss (and the 45-minute wait). The savory ones were impossibly fragrant, owing to the duck fat and the minced scallions studding its layers. And the texture! Each bite generated a tiny shower of crispy shards."
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