Breakfast · Sesame Flatbread

Da Bing (大饼) — Sesame Flatbread

📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Jovan Vasiljević / Unsplash · Unsplash License

It's one quarter of Shanghai's breakfast foursome, and the classic order is to fold a youtiao inside it — so two of the four guardians get eaten in a single bite.

A round or oblong flatbread of leavened dough is brushed with sesame paste or scallion oil, topped with sesame seeds, and baked against the wall of a clay oven until the outside blisters and browns. It's usually wrapped around a stick of fried dough (youtiao) and eaten on the walk to work.

Why it's made this way: Da bing is one of Shanghai's 'four guardians' of breakfast (si da jingang) alongside youtiao, soy milk, and sticky rice rolls (cifantuan) — a cheap, fast combination that took hold in the early 20th century.