Chinese street food, stall and all
catch a train, get a snack
Hello, everyone!
As you all know, Davida and I got married last week, and boy, was it a hell of a pizza party. We threw it at Paulie Gee’s Logan Square, which only felt fitting, because I was a long-time pizzamaker there (over five years!).
I won’t inundate you with wedding photos, but basically, we performed a traditional Korean ceremony called a paebaek, and invited everyone over for pizza.
Our photographer, Ryan Moore, did a fantastic job—if you need any wedding or event photos taken around Chicago, we highly recommend his services. He’s also a long-time friend of mine and a really warm, calming person, which is exactly what you want at a stressful event.
As you can imagine, Davida and I are currently in the afterglow of it all. And funny enough, that’s where today’s edition of The Party Cut comes in.
After we filed the official paperwork for our marriage at City Hall, which was a decidedly less glamorous process than the wedding itself, we needed some lunch.
So we headed to the Chicago French Market.
It’s always struck me as an unusual place. The market is located beneath the Ogilvie Transportation Center, which is a hub for Metra trains, and is a very unlikely home to a bunch of food stalls. Its street entrance is sort of non-descript, so if you’re coming in on either Clinton or Canal, keep your eyes peeled for the awning, which will lead the way to a dark lobby.
Once you’re in the lobby, you’ll see train schedules posted on the wall, but if you follow along the north side, you’ll find the shining glowing entrance to the market. Step in, and it’ll give way to a bright food court that houses about two dozen food stalls, all hawking a diverse array of food from Cuban, Indian, Korean, Belgian, to our focus today, which is Chinese.
Most of the stalls were closed when we arrived, since we came during late afternoon (the market is more of a bustling lunch operation), but the one we wanted to try was still open.
This stall is called Jian, and it specializes in something called jianbing.
Jian touts itself as the first jianbing house in Chicago. I’ll happily admit that we’d never had jianbing before (and that’s okay!), but we’d heard of them and had been curious about them ever since. Jianbing are essentially like crêpes, filled with eggs, shredded vegetables, sauces, and fillings of your choice. And that’s all Jian serves.
You simply order from a kiosk, and get to pick from a wide array of fillings. The kiosk is great in that if you don’t know what the hell you’re doing, nobody around you will know the difference. You can scroll through the menu, nod like you know what’s going on, and pick shit at random. Congratulations, you’re now a jianbing expert!
We ordered three different types of jianbing, one of them being the original version ($7.95).
I’ve got to say, jianbing might actually be the perfect snack, especially if you’ve got some time to kill before your train arrives. The original pancake is studded with green onions and black sesame seeds, and is filled with an egg (popped and fried hard), lettuce, a sweet soy-based sauce, and an incredibly crisp and flaky fried wonton wrapper.
The fried wonton is one of the most attractive aspects about the jianbing, because it provides an irresistibly crisp element to each bite. This is going to sound stupid, but I’d liken the whole thing to a Chinese Crunchwrap Supreme. (Step off, Crunchwraps are amazing.)
Davida said this was her favorite among the three we ordered, and it was also the most balanced and light one, which is why it makes a fantastic casual snack.
A more substantial option is the five-hour pulled pork jianbing ($11.50).
This is the kind of jianbing you want to order if you’re looking for a full meal. The tender shredded pork provides extra spice along with protein, and this one’s also filled with shredded red cabbage that offsets the dense pork.
If you’re looking for some sick gains (aka even more protein), you can add an additional egg, which’ll cost you just $0.95, and make the jianbing an even heftier boy. And who doesn’t like a hefty boy?
Sorry, Davida, but my favorite of the bunch is the crawfish version ($13.50).
Maybe it’s because crawfish is sort of a novel ingredient to find on a menu in Chicago, but this one really hit the spot for me in a way the other two didn’t. The little nuggets of chewy shellfish gave the jianbing some extra satisfaction, and is the one I am still thinking about obsessively a week later.
You have the option to make any of your jianbing spicy (free of charge), which is something I highly recommend. It’s less that the spicy option is actually spicy (it’s a mild heat if anything), but that drizzle of chili oil adds yet another flavor in an already extremely flavorful bite of food.
I do want to note the prices, too. I love that these are so affordable, especially since you’re downtown, where the tag on everything seems to be jacked up significantly. If you’re on an office break or just enjoying a fun day trip downtown, you don’t have to suffer through, like, an $18 burger.
Bonus slice!
Since we were in a food hall, I felt like one of the stands could provide us with a side of some sort. There’s a lot of general seating to one side of the space, and one of the stalls along that edge specializes in Belgian-style frites. Belgian fries with Chinese jianbing? Chicago rules!
The stall is called Frietkoten (good luck pronouncing that), and it specializes in cones of fries along with beer. The large cone ($5.75) is enormous, and by default it comes with ketchup and mayo for dipping. There’s a somewhat overwhelming amount of additional sauces you can order for a nominal fee, so I tacked on some curry ketchup and garlic mayo because I was feeling frisky. (The flavored mayos range between things like truffle, basil, bruschetta, and more.)
The fries are delicious. They’re the ideal kind with a nicely crisp exterior and a pillowy interior, and those upgraded sauces are a must. To our surprise, we crushed about the whole damn cone.
Speaking of frisky, Davida was in an experimental mood, and decided to dip her jianbing in both the curry ketchup and garlic mayo. This might sound blasphemous, but honestly, both made a great condiment to the jianbing. Nothing wrong with a little bit of extra fat or acid to an already flavor-loaded mouthful.
We’ll be back to the French Market at some point during lunch hours (there’s a Montreal-style pastrami place I’ve been jonesing for). And if we’ve got a wide-open day ahead of us, maybe we’ll hop on a train to Cary to visit Uncle Jerry’s. That would be a pretty good day.
Thank you all for reading The Party Cut! I hope it’s making Chicago’s amazing food scene a little less overwhelming for you, week by week, and I’m hoping it’s motivating all of you to try something new.
Don’t forget, every other week is behind a paywall (I know, I know), but that’s because I’ve got to keep this thing fueled and running.
Please upgrade your subscription to get those exclusive editions, plus full access to the 40+ archived pieces. And you’ll be supporting yours truly—though going out to try new things is wonderful, documenting them is sort of a lonely process.
Don’t worry about that, however. I’ve got a pretty good permanent dining companion. We’ll be eating Crunchwraps for life.
Congrats Dennis!!
Congratulations Dennis