Guozi Pancake Rolls 锅子饼

How it is made

At the Xing family shop in Binbei subdistrict (滨北街道), Bincheng District (滨城区), Xing Xinbing (邢新兵) rolls two small rounds of dough, brushed with oil between them, into a double-layered sheet 30 centimetres across. It is cooked on the griddle until it is flecked with yellow spots and puffs up in the middle, then taken off quickly. For the pork-head filling, tofu, cooked pig's-head meat and egg go into the wok one after another, with coriander added at the end. The pancake and the stir-fried filling are then put together, half wrapper and half filling, and fried until done.

The Xing shop uses a specific grade of wheat flour and pure sesame oil, and a designated villager has supplied its tofu for many years. The original filling was egg, cooked meat, tofu and coriander; the shop now offers more than ten fillings in meat, vegetable and seafood ranges.

Flavour and texture

The pancake is described as paper-thin, fragrant without being greasy and crisp without being hard. The wrapper keeps some springiness along with a scorched crispness, while the oil-fried filling melts into it like a sauce, so a bite eats like a staple and a stir-fry at once.

Where it comes from

According to Xing Xinbing, in 1899, late in the Qing dynasty, four Xing brothers of Xiguan village (西关村) in old Bin county (滨县) sold steamed buns and layered flatbread; facing many rival bun sellers, they switched to flatbread alone. In 1904, to save customers time, they began rolling the bread round fried tofu and egg mixed with pork offal. The family's making and passing down of the pancake are recorded in the old Bin county gazetteer and in the Binzhou and Shandong provincial gazetteers. It was named a Shandong famous snack in 2004 and 2008, and in 2021 the Binzhou culture and tourism bureau named Xing Xinbing the tradition bearer for Binzhou guozi bing on the municipal heritage list.