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In C Pam Zhang's Land of Milk and Honey, which takes place in a fictional near-future of worsening climate change and severely reduced biodiversity, the main character chooses to work as an elite chef for a wealthy employer on an isolated mountain in Italy rather than give up access to the ingredients she loves that are rapidly vanishing from mainstream society. However, she experiences doubt about this choice when she takes an uncharacteristic trip into the smog-ridden depths of Milan, where a Chinatown vendor serves her a reimagined version of the beloved street food jian bing (pronounced "JEN-bing"), cobbled together from the scant forms of nourishment still available to people of ordinary means. It reminds the narrator of her childhood with her Chinese mother, and awakens her to the possibility of innovating cuisine to accommodate a more limited ingredient profile.
Jian bing can contain a variety of elements but typically consists of a crepe layered with a beaten egg, bao cui (a...
