Got your tickets for UnTour’s First Annual Jianbing Cook-Off Competition on Aug 8? Now you can start prepping for the People’s Vote by meeting the competitors!
If you don’t have your tickets for the Jianbing Cook-Off yet, don’t worry! We’ve still got early bird pricing available. Hosted at Cages on August 8 from 11am-5pm, the event’s early bird tickets are on sale, so grab yours by scanning the QR Code below or click here! (Link works best off VPN).
Now it’s time to meet our Jianbing Cook-Off competitors! We’ve got nine of Shanghai’s favorite chefs, restaurants, and culinary personalities whipping up their version of China’s most delicious breakfast treat: a jianbing. Expect international spins on this local crepe from some of your favorite chefs (in alphabetical order) at the jianbing cook-off.
Andrew Moo (Taste Collective) & Chris Zhu (formerly of Bird)
Where are you guys from?
Chris is from Shanghai and Andrew is from Perth, Australia.
How did you get to Shanghai?
Chris was born here, Andrew came to Shanghai fun-employed and seeking adventure.
What do you do now?
Chris was the executive chef at Bird + Bitter until taking a sabbatical in Australia for a year. Now back in Shanghai, he is plotting his next move – keep your eyes peeled! Andrew is co-founder of creative food and beverage agency, Taste Collective.
Favorite Jianbing in SH?
Chris: My favorite jianbing was the rustic jianbing trolley downstairs from my home almost 20 years ago.
Andrew: Currently enjoying the jianbing on Xiangyang Nan Lu, just south of Jianguo Lu (just opposite my office – no one likes a sweaty jianbing!)
First Jianbing Memory?
Chris: Also that same jianbing trolley downstairs from my home was my first memory of jianbing. I remember it was a crispy jianbing with youtiao — my favorite childhood breakfast!
What’s Your Favorite Thing About Jianbing?
Chris: My favorite part of jianbing is the crisp.
Andrew: Agree with Chris – the crispy-ness, both of the crepe and wanton does it for me – plus all the pickles, scallions and cilantro (always ask for extra!).
Cages’ Jason Oakley
Where are you from?
United States
How did you get to Shanghai?
By plane
What do you do now?
I’m the chef/partner at Cages.
Favorite Jianbing in Shanghai?
In Pudong on Weifang Lu.
First Jianbing Memory?
I remember thinking why is someone making a crepe on the side of the road so early in the morning?
What’s Your Favorite Thing About Jianbing?
Versatility. The individual ingredients merge to create the perfect bite every time.
Homeslice’s Nat Alexander
Where are you from?
Bath, UK
How did you get to Shanghai?
My wife’s father’s family are originally from Shanghai, and she had come here in 2004 to improve her Chinese. I visited and we both loved the city. I moved here in 2007 after my wife took a job here in 2006.
What do you do now/what inspired you to open your restaurant?
An empty space in a new bar street. I decided what the bar street needed was not another place to drink, but a place to eat. And Homeslice was born.
Favorite Jianbing in SH?
The nearest. If I am getting one in the morning, that’s the woman at Wulumuqi & Wuyuan.
First Jianbing Memory?
I remember getting one on Yishan Lu while out shopping for a proper oven for our first apartment – ate it fresh off the griddle (if that’s what it’s called) and loved it.
What’s Your Favorite Thing About Jianbing?
The way the texture changes while you eat it – crispy and brittle one minute, soft and giving a couple of minutes later.
Spread the Bagel’s Christine Asuncion
Where are you from?
San Diego, California
How did you get to Shanghai?
Moved to Shanghai after graduating from university. Shanghai was where I wanted to end up since my sophomore year of college!
What do you do now?
I’m the MD of Spread the Bagel retail and our trading company. My love for bagels and not being able to find them in Shanghai was what got me started
Favorite Jianbing in SH?
Jianbing stall on Wulumuqi Lu near Changle lu
First Jianbing Memory?
It was introduced to me by my first friend in Shanghai, a German girl also named Christine. I had it for breakfast one morning after a fun night out in the city.
What’s Your Favorite Thing About Jianbing?
I love how it’s so flavorful, light and convenient! I also love how you can DIY it to your taste.
Strictly Cookies’ Lexie Comstock
Where are you from?
USAAAA! Wilton, CT
How did you get to Shanghai?
I studied East Asian studies in college and came here for a marketing internship with a Chinese company.
What do you do now?
I quickly quit that job to start Strictly Cookies because I couldn’t find a soft and chewy American-style cookie in shanghai and I really missed them from home!
Favorite Jianbing in SH?
The classic- corner of fuxing and wulumuqi.
First Jianbing Memory?
Oh man, I don’t remember my first, but my best is after pulling an all nighter in the cookie factory, I got home, picked up my dog to take him for a walk, and sat on the curb and slowly/deliriously ate the best jianbing of my life.
What’s Your Favorite Thing About Jianbing?
The textures, especially the crunch!
Tacolicious’ Thijs Oomens
Where are you from?
Netherlands
How did you get to Shanghai?
For a hotel internship 10 years ago
What do you do now?
Own and operate Tacolicious.
Favorite Jianbing in SH?
Simple street stall jianbing, nothing complicated or fancy, just a jianbing in all its glory and purity
First Jianbing Memory?
My first jianbing was from a vendor who made jianbing on the back of a cart right below my apartment building. That was my daily breakfast for the whole time I lived there
What’s Your Favorite Thing About Jianbing?
The delicious combination of egg, sweet sauce, house made spicy paste and crunchiness of the fried wrapper, how it combines into a glorious flavor and texture explosion. It’s ideal as a breakfast on the go.
Umaami’s Joey Cheng
Where are you from?
Singapore
What brought you to Shanghai?
I first arrived in the city in 1995 on a job posting and worked in advertising.
What do you do now?
I am the chef-owner of Umaami Kitchen. I opened my first restaurant, Bites & Bottles-O, in 2015.
Favorite Jianbing in SH?
Jianbing, for me, is a localised food item that’s usually brought from the nearest wet market. The one at the Xi Kang Lu is the one that I have eaten for 18 years!
First Jianbing Memory?
My memories of Jianbing goes back to 1995. It was usually a breakfast bought by the ah yi on weekends. It’s then evolved to being my family’s staple breakfast on weekends.
What’s Your Favorite Part of Jianbing?
Jianbing is definitely food on the go. It is almost like a Chinese pita, vegetarian roll, a skinny ‘burrito’. While the store bought ones use pretty similar ingredients, there’s no limit to what one can do with the fillings.
Z-Rou’s Cristina Ng, Mark Sampson, and Shiyin Wang
Where are you from?
Cristina: Los Angeles
Mark: Born and bred in Dublin
Shiyin: Born in Shanghai, raised in Milwaukee, WI, USA
What brought you to Shanghai?
Cristina: Came as an ESL teacher (what a cliché)
Mark: Came to Shanghai with a wee Shanghainese lass who later became the loving wife
Shiyin: Came to start a food business
What do you do now?
Cristina: I work with Youkuai Food, which includes Z-Rou plant-based pork and Own What You Eat – the media platform that I manage.
Mark: Chef for a plant-based foods company (Z-Rou)
Shiyin: I do food education now, I’m inspired to help people know more about how to eat and cook healthy and tasty food
Favorite Jianbing in SH?
Cristina: I can always depend on the Wulumuqi Zhong Lu one, near Avocado Lady.
Mark: A shop by Beixinjing station (Xinyu lu Beiyu lu) run by a little lady who has been making mine for the last 7 years and who has probably been cooking them for 60. She puts 3 eggs and plenty of chili on it for me
Shiyin: There’s a roast duck jianbing shop by the Shanghai Museum, the best one!
First Jianbing Memory?
Cristina: Grabbing them on Saturday or Sunday mornings with a warm cup of soy milk back when I was heading in for a full day of English teaching. The promise of a delicious jianbing def pushed me out of bed on hungover work days.
Mark: First jianbing was coming home from my 1st KTV experience after a staff outing in my first job on the Bund. Plenty of 6am drunken vagueness but I do remember loving that Jianbing.
Shiyin: here’s one near my grandpa’s house in Pengpuxincun, also great! Had it when I would visit when I was younger and it’s still there
What’s Your Favorite Part of Jianbing?
Cristina: Controversial opinion but…. I prefer mine with youtiao inside plus lots of cilantro.
Mark: The big crispy sheet that I know I shouldn’t be eating. We’ve all seen the grease buckets they be cooking them in
Shiyin: The crispies
To book your tickets for Jianbing Cook-Off, please scan the QR code below or click the link https://www.eventbank.cn/event/untour-s-1st-annual-jianbing-cook-off-%e7%85%8e%e9%a4%85%e7%9b%9b%e5%85%b8-27776/
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