Scallion Pancakes

01

The first crack is only the crust

Tear a hot Shanghai scallion pancake in half and the crust cracks first; the dough inside is still soft enough to stretch, with the scallions steamed tender against it.

In its paper bag it looks like a plain golden disc. Turn it on its side and you see the seams where the dough was rolled up, and two faces browned darker where they met the iron; break it open and the layers of dough and scallion show. The Shanghai street kind is small and thick, so the cook can fry a crust on both faces and still leave a soft mouthful in the middle. A large thin pancake made at home has more browned surface in every bite.

Scallion gets into the bread two ways. Chopped scallions are spread on the dough and rolled in, so you bite on flecks of green, and the fat brushed between the layers can carry scallion flavor too. Some cooks mix oil or lard with flour into a paste, yóusū (油酥), which stays where it is spread instead of being squeezed out onto the board. In My Shanghai, Betty Liu fries scallions in vegetable oil first, makes the paste with that oil, and still adds fresh scallions: too many fresh ones would leak water, so part of the flavor goes in through the oil and the middle stays light.

Some Shanghai stalls also tuck in pieces of pork fat. Yang Zhongming remembers the pancakes of his childhood with lumps of fat turned translucent among the scallion, soft enough to melt at a bite. Lard may be in the paste as well, and none of it shows from the outside, so if you do not eat pork, ask: 用猪油吗?

Shen Jialu fried his own at home in lard, and remembers a version at Hong Chang Xing made with lamb fat; the two smell quite different as they heat. His pancakes were about a centimeter thick, browned on both faces and soft inside.

Sources [6][8][11][14]

02

The iron above and the oven below

Yang Zhongming remembers the stall stove: a black iron plate with two handles, and under it the oven. The cook pressed a filled round flat and fried it briefly on the plate, which colored both faces and set the shape, then moved it down into the oven, where the heat reached the middle and the crust slowly crisped. One batch fried above while the last one baked below.

Shanghai newspapers describe the same two stages in 1929: on an early autumn day a writer queued half an hour while the cook worked oil and scallions into risen dough, baked the pancakes briefly in a pan, then propped them inside the oven. That stall used risen dough; at home many people simply rest a flour-and-water dough and fry it. Whether the dough is risen, how thin it is pressed and which heat finishes it all change the balance of crisp and soft.

A Da, Wu Gencun, worked the same way: pinch off dough, oil it, fill it with scallion and pork, seal it, fry both faces golden, then move it into the oven. Other Shanghai shops do it all in the pan. At Wang’s Xuhui shop in 2023 staff rolled out a long sheet, spread it with oil paste, pork fat and chopped scallion, rolled and sealed it several times and fried it golden in a pan. Wait for one batch and you can see which kind a stall makes.

Sources [4][5][6][8]

03

From a lane stove to a storefront

In old Shanghai the stall selling flatbreads and fried dough sometimes stood next to a laohuzao (老虎灶), a shop that sold boiling water: breakfast on one side, a boiler on the other. Scallion pancakes were home food as well. On 3 April 1936 Lu Xun noted in his diary that Xiao Jun and Qiaoyin, the writer Xiao Hong, came to visit, and they had scallion pancakes for supper.

The old City God Temple had a richer pastry with a name of its own. The 1983 Chinese Snacks: Shanghai records a vendor surnamed Jiang who made zhòngyóu sūbǐng (重油酥饼), a heavily larded flaky cake that the temple’s Hubin snack shop later took over. Shen Jialu remembers pancake carts multiplying on the streets again in the mid to late 1980s, a living for young people back from the countryside and for workers who had lost their jobs.

Wu Gencun made his pancakes in a lane near Maoming South Road and Nanchang Road. After the BBC filmed him in 2016 the queues grew, and he moved into a licensed shop. In 2025 his son Wu Zhiyong took over a new shop on Shimen Second Road, with an electric oven in place of the old coal one; it closed after service on 31 March 2026, when the building was due for repairs.

Sources [3][5][7][9][13][14][15]

04

From a one-hand snack to a bread for the table

In the north the everyday version, cōnghuābǐng (葱花饼), can fill the whole pan. The dough is rolled thin, brushed with oil, scattered with salt and scallion, rolled up into a rope, coiled and rolled out again, so the coil turns into layers. The cooks of Lao Fan Gu show two ways to fold it, and both peel apart in layers at the edge. Shen Jialu quotes Liang Shiqiu wanting plenty of scallion and plenty of layers, with only as much oil as it needs. A big round is cut and shared at the table; a Shanghai stall pancake is one to a person.

Nanjing pairs it with a bowl. The city’s gazetteer office records three canvas-covered stalls outside the Jiangnan Examination Hall in the late Qing selling scallion pancakes and dòufulào (豆腐涝), soft tofu in a savory broth; they later became shops on Gongyuan Street. Liufengju’s pancake was flaky enough that diners held a hand underneath to catch the crumbs, and in 1987 a Qinhuai snack association listed the pancake and the tofu together as one pairing.

In Sanxing, in Yilan in Taiwan, a farm makes them with its own local scallions, wrapped in the dough as a filling and fried slowly in oil, so the middle is thick with scallion and still juicy.

Sources [1][2][10][14][16]

06

A hot round in a paper bag

At a stall, ask for yí ge cōngyóubǐng (一个葱油饼); if the board lists jiā dàn (加蛋), you can add an egg. In 2023 Wang’s Xuhui shop charged ¥6 plain and ¥8 with an egg. A Da’s pancake cost ¥8 in 2020, and ¥10 at the Shimen Road shop when it closed in 2026.

Wait for one fresh from the pan rather than taking one that has sat in a bag: ask gāng chū guō ma (刚出锅吗), “just out of the pan?” Let the steam out of the bag before you bite, or the crust goes soft. A cup of plain soy milk goes well with the salty, rich bread.

Sources [6][8][9][17]

07

The layers a home pan can give you

Betty Liu uses a flat skillet and scallion-oil paste; Shen Jialu fried his in lard, which gives a different fragrance. Rest the dough until it rolls out without springing back, spread the paste thin, cut the scallions fine, roll up the sheet and coil it. If the coil splits under the pin and the scallions show, stop and let it rest again: scallions that touch the pan burn, while those inside soften and perfume the layers.

Liu cooks it covered, so the trapped heat cooks the middle through, and browns both faces. Torn open after a short rest, it should show distinct layers. Leftover wedges come back in a dry skillet, uncovered so the steam can escape.

Sources [11][14][16]