Jianbing, one of China's most popular street foods, finds fans in Orlando

Jianbing, Jie Yu tells me, is one of the most popular street foods in China.

I can see why.

The savory crepe, wrapped in paper, is a walkable handheld, its delicate, lightly spongy batter of mung bean flower fused with an egg that’s cracked on top, then spread, ensuring both come in every delicious bite. Scallions and cilantro, along with savories such as bean paste and tofu sauce imbue umami. And in the center, a wavy, crispy slat of fried dough gives it multidimensional texture.

“Chinese people usually have it for breakfast,” she says, “but it doesn’t matter. I think you can have it all day long: breakfast, lunch or dinner.”

And for celebration, because May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a rainbow within the rainbow of cultural awareness markers, an enduringly delicious practice.

The hours at TT Crepes will get you from roughly brunch to dinner, but on my recent visit to Yu’s stall inside Mei’s Supermarket, I held out ’til 10:30 a.m. just to make it my first meal of the day. And to leave room in my calorie budget.

I wanted to eat all of it. You will, too.

Feel free to spin around the market after you order, though. There are no crepes sitting idle. Yu makes every order fresh, six days a week. And though the paper boats in which they are served are less ambulatory, they do nothing to temper the steamy delight of this wonderful dish.

When Jie Yu moved to New York City from her native Anjiang, a city in China’s Hunan province, she was the proverbial immigrant, eyes wide with wonder. It was 1999.

“I just wanted to experience the different culture,” she says. “I wanted to try everything. It was all fresh, new. Like I was a baby.”

Before long, however, Yu discovered that amid absorbing everything America had to offer, there was joy in sharing her own culture, as well. And six months after her arrival, an ad in The World Journal, a Chinese-language daily here in the States, brought her to Orlando to do just that, and Yu joined the team at Splendid China, where for many years she performed, exposing countless visitors to the grace and beauty of Peking opera.

“In beautiful costumes, we dance, do acrobatics, music, singing …”

She pulls out her phone and poses in her chef’s hairnet, juxtaposed beside her tiny self in full costume - dramatic makeup, hand-embroidered garments. Both versions are charming, but her food would win you over regardless.

She won over her manager at Splendid China, for sure. She and the venue’s former Director of Entertainment, Changkui Tang, have been married since 2003.

“He is very talented,” she tells me.

Tang smiles from behind the counter.

“He plays the bamboo flute and Chinese violin,” she tells me, noting his regular gig at Epcot that comes just before the Lunar New Year.

Sometimes, in fact, he will play right in the supermarket, as students from local schools visit to practice alongside “Teacher Tang.”

TT Crepes (named for Yu’s childhood nickname, “my grandmother called me TT and so then my whole family called me that when I was young,” she explains is open six days a week, but Yu still moonlights as a server at Epcot’s Nine Dragons restaurant for two of them. Plus she and her husband keep up the cultural performances elsewhere.

“We do them at senior centers, universities and with students, too.”

Alongside the star jianbing, customers have been enjoying other items: crispy-fried scallion pancakes, handmade wontons and savory noodles with ground pork, bean paste and peanuts. Beef and chicken wraps are popular, too. And the sesame flatbread? This one is worth a few rounds that could easily be multicultural. Gorgeous plain and fresh from the pot where oil crisps up the outside, leaving it steamy-fluffy within, one could drag it through curry, layer it with pate, stuff tunafish in the middle.

Seriously. It’s that good. As are the intermittent seafood specials.

Yu’s background, with parents from both Beijing and Hunan, have kept her culinary background diverse, she says.

“At first, all of our customers were Chinese but slowly people have been finding us.”

It’s my goal, as it is each AAPI month, to help those numbers surge.

“I really want people to try the real Chinese food and learn that culture can be shared through both the arts and food,” Yu said.

If you go

TT Crepes: located inside Mei’s Supermarket at 10681 E. Colonial Drive in Orlando; instagram.com/ttcrepeshouse

Sweet Shiba Asian Street Food: Jianbing & more!

Ivan and Eve Jin came to the states from China’s Northern Liaoning Province in 2017, where Jin found work in an array of Asian restaurants. But while Long Island in New York was their landing pad, Orlando - where they’d visited some time earlier - was the goal. Since moving here in 2019, they’ve been enjoying their time expanding the city’s culinary repertoire with takes both traditional and creative. Their jianbing being one of them.

“I’ve been eating this since I was young,” he tells me. “There would be stands out in the morning on the street corner, but when you like it,” he continues, a nice parallel to TT’s Yu, “you eat it all day long.”

“In the morning, though - that smell! It’s fresh and hot and crispy. So good.”

In general, he points out, it’s just a savory crepe with egg with that crispy layer inside and both savory and sweet sauce, but beyond the usual vegetarian version, the Jins’ Sweet Shiba Asian Street Food, they do others, one featuring Spam and another with potato salad.

“This one is not traditional, more our own thing, but people especially vegetarians like it because it’s a filling and flavorful way to have it.

Other things they do: TikTok-trendy egg meat buns, lamb and chicken skewers “the authentic Chinese way,” says Jin, and more. Find them on Sundays at the Lake Eola Farmers Market, Monday evenings at the Audubon Park Community Market

Keep track of their schedule at facebook.com/sweetshibaasianstreetfood and/or instagram.com/sweetshibaasianstreetfood.

Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, For more foodie fun, join the Let's Eat, Orlando Facebook group.

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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 5:09 AM.