Street Food: Taiwanese Pancakes!

In Taiwan, my friend George and I used to cruise the night markets from time to time. He ate all the questionable foods like "stinky tofu" and "chicken butts", and I kept to the "safe" foods like "papaya milk" and "steamed pork buns". One of my favorite night market foods were the scallion pancakes. Wandering the crowded little alleyways with George munching on a steamy pancake from a plastic bag is one of my favorite memories of Taiwan.

So, one day feeling all nostalgic, I decided to make them here at home in Istanbul. Here's how it worked out.

First, I got a recipe from the Internet. Oh how I love the Internet.

The dough was super straight forward - water, salt and -this is important! - HOT water.

Here I've rolled out the dough and spread a thin layer of sesame oil over it.

Then I sprinkled scallions over it.

Then you roll up the pancake, twist it and roll it - like so.

Let them rest for 30 minutes before flattening them out with a rolling pin.

Once they're flat, you can freeze them between parchment paper, (which I did with some).

Or... you can put them into a super hot pan with a little oil and make them nice and crispy!

I served them with a dipping sauce made of soy sauce, rice vinegar and ginger.

Georgie! You'd be proud!