Machang Mung Bean Pancakes

Machang Mung Bean Pancakes

　　Machang Mung Bean Pancakes are a specialty snack from Machang Town, Shuyang County, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province. The production of small mung bean pancakes in Machang has a history of over a hundred years, and dozens of households on the old street of Machang still make a living from this trade. The most famous producers in the 1930s and 1940s were the families of Wang Mingfu and Wang Minglou, while the oldest existing brand today is that of the Xu Wenshi family.

　　There are seven steps to making the small mung bean pancakes: First is selecting the ingredients—choosing authentic locally grown mung beans from Machang and removing all sand and impurities; second is soaking—the selected mung beans are soaked in clean water until they naturally shed their skins; third is skin removal—repeatedly filtering with clean water until all the bean skins are washed away; fourth is grinding the paste—using a fine-toothed stone mill to grind the soaked and skinned mung beans into a paste; fifth is mixing the ingredients—combining a small amount of finely ground sweet potato powder and sesame powder with water to form a paste; sixth is baking—the batter is scooped into special molds about 3 cm in diameter and half a centimeter high, using a warm flat pan, and baked until light yellow.

　　The finished pancakes are small, round, and appealing, with a yellowish-green hue. However, from the perspective of cooking, the process from ingredient selection to baking only completes half of the dish, as people never eat the baked mung bean pancakes directly. They must be further prepared through methods such as stewing, pan-frying, or deep-frying before consumption. Stewing involves braising the pancakes with pork, which is the simplest and most common way to eat them. Pan-frying means cooking the small pancakes in a pan with a small amount of oil until golden, then serving them on a plate sprinkled with a pre-mixed five-spice salt and pepper seasoning to create the famous dish—Spiced Salt Mung Bean Pancakes. Deep-frying is the most premium method: the pancakes are cleaned and dried, then fried in a very hot pan until golden brown and puffed up on both sides, after which they are quickly removed and placed in another dry, hot pan. A pre-prepared sauce made primarily of sweet and sour flavors, mixed with other spicy, savory, and salty seasonings, and thickened with sweet potato starch, is poured over and stirred repeatedly. The hot, golden pancakes, suddenly coated with the multi-flavored cold sauce, sizzle and release an enticing aroma. Once evenly mixed, they are promptly served—this is the long-renowned delicacy, Glazed Mung Bean Pancakes. They are soft on the outside, crispy on the inside, deliciously fragrant and crunchy, leaving a lasting impression. Huang Jiahan, a renowned chef from Machang, is especially skilled at making this dish.

　　The streets of Machang Town are wide, the market is bustling, and visitors come and go in an endless stream. Anyone who is from Machang, has lived in Machang, or has passed through Machang will never forget the Glazed Small Mung Bean Pancakes after just one taste. They always want to eat them more often and bring some back to share with family and friends. However, since the mung bean pancakes from Machang are all handmade, made to order, sold at outdoor stalls, and have never been packaged, their shelf life is short—only 1–2 days in hot weather and about half a month in cold weather. This makes them unsuitable for long-distance transport or large-scale sales, which severely limits the promotion of Machang’s small mung bean pancakes. If manufacturers or investors could collaborate for scaled production, vacuum packaging, and include cooking instructions so people can make them at home, it would surely help Machang’s small mung bean pancakes break into the national market.