My First Introduction to Chinese Hotpockets 馅饼

It's always interesting to stumble onto Chinese foods that bare a remarkable similarities to western food. China was the first to create sandwiches, and now, they can likely lay claim to meat pies or hot pockets. The word 饼  Bǐng generally speaking means pancake, and there are many different types. The things that are like hotpockets or meat pies go by the name 馅饼  Xiàn bǐng。The type I have tried are the baked variety.

These are the four that I have tried, so far. 

This one is 黑椒牛肉  Hēi jiāo niúròu.  I admit the photo is not as appetizing as this actually was. Basically, this is a black pepper spiced beef.

This one was 麻辣鸡肉  Málà jīròu -- basically, spicy chicken. Again, not a great photo.

This was 叉烧里脊  Chāshāo lǐjí -- marinated pork tenderloin, the name doesn't include corn and peas involved. 

This one was 香辣鱿鱼  Xiāng là yóuyú -- spicy squid. I thought one bite into this would lead to a photograph of tentacles in a bread pocket. In a way, I was glad the squid was chopped. Everytime I have eaten squid, I have found squid tentacles a little bit too chewy.

Naturally, some are better than others. I liked the spicy chicken the most out of the these four, but there is so many variety of these in China. I am looking forward to trying so much more. One day, in Nanjing, I might find one filled with duck or lamb meat, and that 馅饼 will be glorious.