Huzhou Baked Flatbread
A small round flatbread baked against the wall of a clay oven until blistered and crisp, filled with preserved mustard greens and pork fat, or with spring onion for a plainer version.
How to eat it
Take it in the paper sleeve and eat it with your hands while it is hot; the crust is thin and shatters, so lean forward. Bite from the edge inward so the greasy filling in the centre does not run out. It goes with a bowl of soy milk, chicken vermicelli or wonton soup, and locals often dunk the last dry piece in the broth. A cooled flatbread turns leathery and is not worth buying; watch for one coming out of the oven. Two make a full breakfast.
The story behind the dish
Clay-oven flatbreads are baked all over Zhejiang, and each town has its own size and filling. Huzhou's is on the small side, thinner and crisper than the famous version from Jinyun in the south, with the same combination of dark preserved mustard greens and pork fat that defines the province's savoury pastries. The ovens are usually a metal drum lined with clay, with the raw dough slapped onto the inside wall to bake in minutes. There is no recorded origin; it is simply the bread of the city's morning street trade, and the stalls have moved with the markets they serve.
For reference
Every kitchen does it its own way. What follows is the typical version — ingredients, heat and price shift from city to city and from one restaurant to the next, so take it as a guide rather than a fixed recipe.
If you have an allergy or something you can't eat, check with the staff before you order.