Scallion Pancake

Scallion pancake is a flaky, laminated flatbread folded through with scallion and pan-fried until crisp outside and chewy within. It is street food built from almost nothing — flour, water, oil and a handful of scallion — and it's the layering technique, not any expensive ingredient, that gives it its texture.

What it really is

A simple dough is rolled thin, brushed with oil and scattered with chopped scallion, then rolled up and coiled before being flattened again, a step that builds thin layers through the dough the same way puff pastry builds layers through repeated folding. Pan-fried in a generous amount of oil, the coiled layers separate slightly as they cook, giving the finished pancake a flaky, almost laminated bite instead of the dense chew of a single-layer flatbread.

The coil-and-flatten step is what creates the layers. Skipping it and simply mixing scallion into a flat dough gives a plainer, denser bread; the layering is a real technique, not a shortcut, and it's the whole reason the texture works.

How it is served

• Cut into wedges, straight from the pan.
• Plain, or with a simple soy-vinegar dipping sauce.
• As a street snack or a side alongside a larger meal.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the wheat and the sesame oil.
• It is naturally vegan and vegetarian as standard.
• Say if it's made fresh to order, since a pancake fried ahead loses its flaky layers once it sits and cools.