They're usually 3.50 yuan, but do two eggs for the extra .50 yuan. and don't skimp on the crisp. Ask for extra green onions and cilantro. That and a good cup of soy milk will come in at six RMB, so a dollar.
Here's a guy making a pretty standard Beijing jianbing.
For only four yuan (and then two leftover for a beverage) you can get a 肉夹馍 (roùjiāmó) which is a crisp unleavened oven baked cake opened like a pita and stuffed with shredded fatty pork that has been slow cooked in a delicious broth of soy, cooking wine, star anise, a little cinnamon. The preparer will dice your pork along with fresh green chili peppers, slide it into the pocket of the mo and top it off with a little juice. Absofuckinglylutely delicious.
And here's a guy making roujiamo though crucial steps aren't shown in the video.
One of my favorites is the pan-grilled pork bun 生煎包 (pronounced "sheng-jian bao"). Which, in my opinion, is 10x better than its original steamed pork bun form. The pan-grilled bun is smaller than a plain steamed bun, about the size of dumpling, stuffed with ground pork & green onion fillings, with crispy grilled bottom. When served hot to taste, its steamy delicious pork-mixure juice bursting into your mouth can easily make you forget about jiao-zi (dumpling), hun-tun (wonton) and man-tou (steamed bun).
生煎包 (pronounced "sheng-jian bao") Pan-grilled Bun is a bargain street-food: 4 pieces (minimum order) cost about ¥4 in Shanghai (and only ¥2 ~ ¥3 RMB in eastern provence of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui, etc.)
饺子 (pronounced "jiao-zi") Boiled Dumpling: 6 pieces (min. order) cost from ¥2 and up, depending on the fillings. Sometimes people also eat the pan-grilled dumpling but it's not the same taste as sheng-jian bao, because of the differences in processed wrap, filling, and grilling methods. It is one most popular delicacy all over China.
馄饨 (pronounced "hun-tun" or "wonton") Soup Dumpling: costs from ¥4 and up, depending on the fillings. The most popular filling in Hong Kong and Shanghai is shrimp and pork mixture. And people sometimes add extra noodles to fill up an appetite.
油豆腐粉丝汤 (pronounced "you-dou-fu-feng-si") Fried-Tofu Bean-Noodle Soup is a common dish in Shanghai street food stall. The fried tofu is stewed in a big pot of meat broth and served with instantly cooked bean-noodle upon order. The soup base is quite tasty but greasy. Costs around ¥6 per bowl.
兰州拉面 (pronounced "lan-zhou-la-mian") Lanzhou Noodle Soup is the typical Chinese muslim dish that can be found in almost everywhere nowadays. Due to muslim dietary culture, it only comes with 2 types of broth, beef or mutton. And the flour-noodles to order are usually hand-made in thick or thin strips. Costs from ¥6 and up, depending on the extra toppings of meat.
1. This is a hu jiao bing 胡椒餅. It is a baked bun loaded with pork and green onion and is seasoned with tons of hu jiao aka pepper. Fun fact: Did you know that the hu in hu jiao traditionally meant "barbarian" and, thus, hu jiao means foreign or barbarian pepper? They're super delicious and are baked in clay-lined steel drums. Really great.
2. In Mandarin, these are known as zhuang yu xiao wan zi (章魚小丸子). They are bite-sized balls of batter and cabbage with a piece of cooked octopus at the core. They're pretty much a rip off of Japanese takoyaki. They are typically served with wasabi, mayonnaise, thickened soy sauce and bonito flakes.
3. Gua bao (刮包) is jokingly called a "Chinese hamburger." Anyhow, they consist of a fluffy, clamshell style steamed bun which is stuffed with some sort of meat and various garnishes. Here in Taiwan, soy-braised pork belly is the meat of choice. My vendor also tosses in some pickled mustard greens, crushed peanuts and sugar, cilantro and chili paste.