Jianbing from China sweeps across Manhattan

Fresh from China, they came ashore in the San Francisco Bay Area. They stormed Seattle. They descended on Portland, Ore. Now, they are sweeping across Manhattan, with sightings near Washington Square Park, Midtown and Columbia University.

刚从中国过来时，它们在旧金山湾区登陆。它们涌入西雅图。它们大批降临俄勒冈州的波特兰。现在，它们正横扫曼哈顿，华盛顿广场公园、中城和哥伦比亚大学附近都有它们的身影。

Jianbing, a street-food crepe from northern China made with eggs, chili and sweet sauce, cilantro, scallions and a crunchy deep-fried dough wafer, is Beijing's latest culinary flexing of soft power.

中国北方的街头小吃煎饼——一种以鸡蛋、辣椒、甜面酱、香菜、葱花和一片香脆的油炸薄面片制成的薄饼——成了在饮食领域展示北京方面的软实力的最新载体。

Made in the ubiquitous street carts that dot Beijing, Tianjin and other northern Chinese cities, jianbing can be eaten on the go, doubling as a hand-warmer on those frigid days when the wind invades from Siberia. The going price in the more upscale sections of the Chinese capital now is about 5 renminbi, or 77 cents.

在北京、天津等北方城市，煎饼是从随处可见的街头餐车里出炉的，可以在路上吃，还可以在西伯利亚寒流来袭、冷风瑟瑟的日子里用来暖手。在北京的较高档街区，其现行价格约为5人民币，合77美分。

Despite its humble origins, making jianbing is an art. Mess up the secret sauce – generally some combination of sweet sauce and bean paste – and it could overpower the crepe, dominating the chili, humbling the cilantro, running roughshod over the scallions.

煎饼身世卑微，但制作煎饼却堪称一门艺术。酱汁是秘制的——通常由甜面酱和豆瓣酱混合而成——作为给煎饼提味的最大功臣，它的味道会盖过辣椒、香菜和葱花。

That is why Yolanda Lee and Dolkar Tsering, friends from Pace University in New York, spent months in northern China in late 2014 going from city to city. They sampled more than 100 kinds of jianbing, learning from the street-side masters, who, more often than not, were happy to offer advice.

正因为如此，约兰达·李和次仁卓嘎这对来自纽约佩斯大学的朋友，才会从2014年末开始，花费数月时间，从一个城市跑到另一个城市。她们品尝了超过100种煎饼，向街边那些往往乐于提供建议的煎饼大师取经。

"We both gained 20 pounds after that," Ms. Lee said. "No joke.''

"那以后，我们都胖了20磅，"李说。"不开玩笑。"

Ms. Lee, 25, a Beijing native who studied marketing and art history, and Ms. Tsering, 26, an ethnic Tibetan from Sichuan Province who studied finance, wanted to recreate the classic jianbing in New York, with a few modifications.

25岁的李是土生土长的北京人，主修市场营销和艺术史。26岁的次仁卓嘎是来四川省的藏族人，主修金融。她们想在纽约推出煎饼这种经典食品，只对它略作调整。

In October, their bright-yellow food truck, the Flying Pig Jianbing, hit Manhattan's streets, serving students near New York University's business school, capturing some of the Midtown lunch crowd and, on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, setting up on Broadway outside Columbia. The truck came jianbing-ready, Ms. Lee says, having served as a French crepe maker in an earlier incarnation.

去年10月，她们把明黄色的"飞天猪煎饼"餐车开上街头，在纽约大学商学院附近为学生提供服务，还吸引到了中城的一些午餐人群，周一和周二下午，餐车会在哥伦比亚大学校园外的百老汇蹲点。这辆车来的时候就可以用来做煎饼，李说，它此前是个做法式薄饼的餐车。

"We initially wanted a very, very small restaurant, but obviously the rent in New York City is outrageous," Ms. Lee said. "But then I realized that a truck was a better idea, because jianbing was supposed to be sold on the street."

"我们起初想开一个非常非常小的餐厅，可是纽约市的房屋租金显然高得吓人，"李说。"但我随后意识到，弄一辆餐车是个更好的主意，因为煎饼就该在街上卖。"

The truck's Beijing Original jianbing now costs $8, about 10 times the price in Beijing.

这辆餐车上的"北京原味"煎饼现在卖8美元一个——价格大约是北京的10倍。

The travels of Ms. Lee and Ms. Tsering in northern China appear to have paid off. Their jianbing captures most of the flavors of their native land, and the crispy fritter shell, known as bao cui, is superior to many found in Beijing. It's crispier.

看来，李和次仁卓嘎在中国北方的那些旅程带来了回报。她们的煎饼基本秉承了中式风味，里边的油炸面片——名为薄脆——比在北京吃到的许多都要好。它更脆一些。

The Flying Pig variety adds elements rarely found in China. For one, my two-egg version came with fresh lettuce. It takes a brave soul in Beijing to countenance having a food vendor on a dusty alleyway slip a raw vegetable of unknown origins inside a breakfast jianbing, regardless of intestinal fortitude, though that option is available from longtime Beijing jianbing-makers like Guo Xueping, who draws a crowd of regulars to her bike-powered cart in the Dongzhimen neighborhood.

"飞天猪"版煎饼添加了一些在中国很少有人添加的东西。举个例子，我吃的双蛋煎饼加了新鲜的生菜。在北京，不管其肠胃的强弱，一个人得有极大的勇气，才会愿意让站在尘土飞扬的小巷里的食品商贩把不知来自何处的生蔬菜加进自己的早点里，尽管有些常年制作煎饼的北京小贩，比如郭雪萍，会提供这一选项。郭雪萍位于东直门的煎饼车由三轮车改装而成，她有很多回头客。

And, this being America, the Flying Pig jianbing is supersize. Forget eating this monster on the go. This is the S.U.V. of jianbing. It comes in a small box. You are even given a knife and fork. Eat one for lunch and give your stomach a rest for the remainder of the day. You won't be hungry come sundown.

此外，由于是在美国，"飞天猪"煎饼尺寸超大。就别想着手拿这个大家伙边走边吃了。它可是煎饼界的SUV。会有一个小盒子盛着它。你甚至还会拿到刀叉。午餐时吃上一个，这一天余下的时间就可以让你的胃休息一下了。太阳落山时你都不会觉得饿。

For this, Ms. Lee and Ms. Tsering say they are prisoners of the French crepe. The skillets that came with their truck were designed to make much bigger wrappings than the Beijing variety such as those made by Ms. Guo, though for an additional cost, she can throw in another egg or two.

就尺寸而言，李和次仁卓嘎说法国薄饼绑住了她们的手脚。她们那辆餐车上的煎饼铛经过特别设计，专门用于制作大个儿薄饼，尺寸远远大于北京版煎饼，比如郭雪萍做的那些，尽管另加钱的话，她也会多加一个或两个鸡蛋。

Ms. Lee and Ms. Tsering have also included a few specialty items on their menu. If the Beijing Original does not satisfy you, add pork belly, their specialty. A tuna-melt variety is $9.50. They even have a gluten-free jianbing.

李和次仁卓嘎还在菜单上列明了几种特别选项。如果"北京原味"无法满足你，可以加入他们特别准备的五花肉。加金枪鱼的要价9.5美元。她们甚至还提供无麸质煎饼。

Business, they say, has been a success, with around 150 jianbing sold on an average workday. The two entrepreneurs are also not the first to offer the Chinese crepe in the United States. For a time, a street cart called Bing of Fire sold jianbing in Seattle. There is Jian Bing Johnny's in the Bay Area, whose owner adds a layer of authenticity by cooking his crepes from a pedal-powered cart. Portland has Bing Mi!

她们的生意已经取得了成功，一个工作日平均能卖出150个煎饼。这两位创业者并不是最先在美国卖中式煎饼的人。有一阵子，一辆名叫"火饼"的街头餐车在西雅图卖过煎饼。湾区有个"约翰尼煎饼"，摊主是在自行车拉的板车上做煎饼，这让他的出品显得更加正宗。波特兰则有"剑兵煎饼"。

Others are serving up jianbing to New Yorkers, the local Grub Street blog reported last month. The jianbing has also landed in Europe. In London and Manchester, there is Mei Mei's Street Cart.

纽约本地博客Grub Street上月报道称，其他一些摊主正把煎饼送到纽约客手中。此外，煎饼已经登陆欧洲。在伦敦和曼切斯特，可以看到"妹妹的街头餐车"。

In a sign of the times, Ms. Lee said that she and Ms. Tsering had attracted Chinese investment. They plan to expand in the homeland with the Flying Pig's version in jianbing ground zero: Beijing.

李说她和次仁卓嘎已经吸引到了来自中国的投资——这也算是跟上了时代潮流。她们打算把事业版图扩大到自己的祖国，在煎饼圣地北京推出"飞天猪"煎饼。