Chinese street food in Manhattan is focused on snacks from the southern regions of China, which means that New Yorkers are missing out on some quality items from up north. Shu and I have joked that when we get back to NY, we should set up a little bing stand on Center St. to give people a taste, but it looks like we’ve been beaten to it. New York Magazine reports on a recent opening:
“A little farther uptown is Roll and Dough (135 W. 3rd St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-253-2871), the brainchild of Elizabeth Ting, who’s hoping to infiltrate the fast-food market with tiny buns and big plans for national expansion (branches near Columbia University and in Atlantic City are already in the works). The signature dish, the eminently portable bing ($1.50 to $1.95 each) looks a little like a sesame-seed bagel that got run over by a taxi, and belongs to the same internationally renowned family of stuffed dough pockets as empanadas, calzones, and samosas. But unlike Geno’s pizza rolls, Mrs. Ting’s bings are grilled to a superb chewy-flaky consistency and filled with everything from lotus root to mustard greens. If Ting is to be believed, biting into a bing is not only delicious but carries with it a weighty historical association: During a trip to China, she says, Marco Polo became so enamored of bings that he went on a bing binge, and, upon returning to Italy, attempted to cook up a batch.”
But $2 a pop? For that price, I could have a dozen fresh bings filled w/ fried egg, cilantro, scallions, fermented bean sauce and a bit of chilli oil in Beijing.
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