By Er Yue

Chinese Crepe Rolls in
New York

By Er Yue

During her study abroad in America, Li Fei, a Beijinger, had a whole host of apprenticeships. She was a performer at the Chinese Shadow Puppet Theater in New York, a production assistant in the Hollywood dream factory, and also a purchasing agent. After graduating from university, she has been trying to become an entrepreneur.

Practicing Authentic Culinary Craft

While on leave at her parent’s home, Li and her father had an all-night powwow session about suitable moneymaking projects and business opportunities. Her Father felt that his daughter, who was veritably bursting with grit and gumption, simply lacked the necessary practical experience.“Why don’t you get into the foodservice business? It’s the best way to build rigorous discipline,” he advised.

In July 2014 after returning to United States, Li Fei took some friends out pounding the pavement through the Big Apple where they did a fair share of market research. By way of a happy accident, she noticed an army of lunch trucks that regularly made the rounds through the New York’s mean streets. During lunch hour, the popular lunch wagons often lined up along the curbs with teams of workers selling freshly prepared cuisine from all around the world: Mexican burritos, Korean barbecue, Turkish fried rice, Italian spaghetti and French bread. Every possible need had been filled, save one. Chinese crepe rolls, AKA jianbing. With a heart brimming with newfound vim, our intrepid heroine, Li Fei had found her calling; selling Chinese crepe rolls to the locals in an exotic foreign land.

Before officially opening, Li Fei first traveled far and wide looking for that perfect secret jianbing recipe that would serve as the basis for her deluxe pancake rolls, all the while doing tastetests as she went. Not wanting to swindle the New Yorkers out of an authentic culinary experience, she flew back to China with her friends and sampled the crepe rolls in Shandong, Beijing and finally Tianjin, where she met her “pancake shifu.”

The day she finished her apprenticeship, Li Fei had sampled more than 100 varieties of jianbing, and simultaneously put on 20 pounds of unsightly, excess fat. She had also acquired a unique talent, which was the ability to know the exact ingredients within the sauce to a tee in one tiny taste. Li Fei had become a master at beating batter, at cracking an egg onehanded, at simmering the sauce to the correct consistency, at heating the chilli oil and frying up the dough sticks to that perfect crispy golden brown. She had her craft down pat, and so it was now time for the grasshopper to leave the dojo and fly back to the United States to show that her mastery of pancake skills were better than anyone else’s.

Licensed, Loaded and Ready for Action

After nearly a year of preparation, the grand opening of Li Fei’s jianbing serving food truck was just on the horizon when she suddenly realized that there was literally a mile’s worth of red tape stretched across the middle of her gold-paved road, blocking her road to riches. In the United States, even street vendors have to apply for licenses, including a Health Department license, they have to fill out reams of paperwork and take health classes and exams. Yet, Li Fei’s legal license to grill jianbing would be difficult to come by, as the legal limit of licenses that could be issued had been reached all the way back in 2007.

“It turns out that even a place like America has such misguided rules,”she lamented. After experiencing a myriad of complications and setbacks, Li Fei managed to secure a commercial license and purchased a used roach coach from which to vend her crepe rolls to the New York gourmands. The truck was outfitted with a spinning police light. With a glimmering coat of yellow paint and a few finishing touches here and there, her brand new shiny food truck was swathed in a new suit of “clothes.” It was even given a macho moniker: The Flying Pig Jianbing.

In October 2015, The Flying Pig Jianbing opened for business in New York City, in the form of a shining golden food truck shuttling around the Streets of Manhattan. Trucks do not have a fixed location in New York; so, every morning at the crack of dawn, Li Fei begins her preparations for the day’s work. No matter whether it is freezing cold or scorching hot, come rain or come shine, she takes to the street in the wee hours of the morning to compete for a street side spot to set up shop. It goes without saying that this would be an arduous task for any young female millennial.

Although there is no urban management in New York, there are even stricter traffic police roving the streets, there to maintain traffic order, if the officers feel that a food truck is holding up traffic, then that is an automatic traffic citation. Early in the days of its operation, the “Flying Pig” ate its fill of costly tickets, as fines ranged from 65 to 175 US dollars daily.

An Expertly Trained International Troop of Crepe Cooks

Temper the flour, pour out crepe batter, whisk an egg, sprinkle on the green onion, brush the crepe with sweet sauce and chilli oil, add in a crispy homemade dough stick, then sprinkle in pork floss or toss in few slices of Harbin-style sausage according to the customer’s demand, a fresh hot crepe roll is ready to eat. Many Americans have fallen in love with this traditional Chinese street food.

Every morning, Li Fei’s food truck is mobbed by long lines of eager patrons. Every day, the tiny windows of her food truck are stared down by hundreds of pairs of curious, eager eyes. Inside this cramped little truck, Li Fei wields her tools like a kung fu master. Pouring and spreading the batter takes four seconds; brushing on the sauce takes three, she then throws in a long, thin homemade crispy fritter, next adds in a few pieces of homemade red-braised pork, then wraps it up, cuts it in half with knife, and BAM! A delectable jianbing is hot off the grill and ready for consumption. Young handsome guys and beautiful girls surround her food truck eating to their hearts content; their sparkling smiles only outshined by the gleam of the golden truck. The joyful, buoyant energy is palpable in this place.

Of course, Li Fei is not alone on the battlefield. Beside her, her right-hand man is a crepe maker extraordinaire from Beijing. In addition, she has a Mexican apprentice learning the ropes, a cashier girl from Europe, and a cleaner from Cote d’Ivoire Africa. Besides these full-time troops, she also rallies some part-timers; a young handsome white guy from the States, and an adorable Japanese girl. Li Fei proudly remarks that her team is “l(fā)ike a mini United Nations.”

On the streets of Manhattan, Li Fei and company work non-stop, frying and serving up one savory “taste of China” after another. Sometimes lines stretch so long, filling the sidewalks, full to bursting. In 2016, they have gone from selling only a few dozen crepe rolls per day, to selling more than 200.

“Whatever you do, don’t get into the food service business, and if your dad advises you to, then that guy’s probably not your real father.” Li Fei quips with a smile and a wink. The reality is, the foodservice industry is extremely tiring, but the income is nevertheless, impressive. One crepe-roll, served with a cup of hot soya milk or apple juice, goes for 8 US dollars. Let’s just say that she sells two or three hundred per day, the gross profits are around 2000 dollars, minus overhead, employee salaries and other miscellaneous expenses, Li Fei can make 40%, taking home 800 dollars per day. And after exchanging it to RMB, that’s five thousand or six thousand yuan. Not bad for a day’s work.

(FromWomen of China,May 2016. Translation: Chase Coulson)