How the Scallion Pancake Became the Most Versatile Bread in America

23.08.2023 - 10:33 / cntraveler.com

This is part of Breaking Bread, a collection of stories that highlights how bread is made, eaten, and shared around the world. Read more here. 

Becky Lin despised cheese when she first moved to the US at age twelve. Having grown up in rural Fuzhou, China, it just wasn’t part of the cuisine. Then again, neither were scallion pancakes—or cong you bing, the allium-flecked, flaky-layered, and golden-griddled Chinese flatbreads that are a mainstay in Chinese restaurants in the States. Since her family moved to New York City, however, Lin quickly fell in love with the bread. (Cheese took a little longer.)

Isabel Lee and Luis Fernandez fuse Chinese and Dominican ingredients on scallion pancakes at Forsyth Fire Escape in New York City. 

During the pandemic, Lin was making scallion pancakes—now, “one of my go-to comfort foods”—when her four-year-old daughter requested one with cheese on top. Lin had mozzarella in the fridge, so she melted it on the browned top.

“It was like the best of both worlds coming together,” says Lin, “East and West.”

 At restaurants, pop-ups, and home kitchens across the US, chefs are rolling the hot cakes into burritos, burgers, breakfast sandwiches, and much more, with ingredients that are near and dear to them. 

Today, Lin is the chef-owner of Lin & Daughters in New York City’s Greenwich Village, where she serves a “cheesy scallion pancakes” appetizer inspired by her daughter’s creation. Scallion pancakes are folded to enclose a filling of cream cheese and green onion reminiscent of crab rangoon, says Lin, before mozzarella cheese is griddled on top. Crispy and oozing, the appetizer has become a crowd favorite at Lin & Daughters since it opened in late 2022.

This is one of the tamer creations among a broader scallion pancake reimagining. At restaurants, pop-ups, and home kitchens across the US, chefs are rolling the hot cakes into burritos, burgers, breakfast sandwiches, and much more, with ingredients that are near and dear to them, Chinese and otherwise. It’s a reflection of newly acquired diaspora tastes, creativity, and the enduring appeal of a versatile flatbread—but perhaps none of this should be surprising for a dish rooted in travel and evolution. 

Scallion pancakes have long been part of the culture in China and Taiwan, where the flatbreads are commonly eaten as a street food snack. Their exact origins, however, are murky. Some have speculated that cong you bin may have been inspired by paratha, the Indian flatbread with a visibly similar construction; chopped scallions, a typical Chinese garnish, were possibly added to the dough along the way. By that theory, a busy international port city like Shanghai may have birthed them. “It’s a water port, so it’s a metropolitan city