Xian Bing with Rare Sirloin
As seen on TV
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Who made this dish?
A riff on xian bing — a Chinese meat-stuffed pancake rolled to laminate layers of seasoned beef through the dough, pan-seared to a crisp-blistered exterior, and crowned with a tataki-style rare slice of New York strip. Pickled daikon cuts the richness. Cara's inspiration came from street food she encountered during her time living in Beijing after her French visa expired.
Cara: "Cara, you know what a xian bing is? A xian bing is a meat-stuffed pancake. My inspiration is from street food when I lived in Beijing. I first moved to China because my visa expired in France and I got booted when I was working for Gordon Ramsay in Versailles. Leaving France was sad, but moving to China was amazing, food wise. I had never been so enthralled in my life. There are going to be, like, individual wedges of a pancake with some rare meat on top. Very traditional Chinese."
Cara (to Padma): "So I made a xian bing. It's kind of like a scallion pancake meets a meat stuffing. This one's rolled to create layers of meat within dough, and then I just did a rare slice on top."
Cara (to chef): "There's a stuffed Chinese pancake, a little rare beef on top, pickled daikon. Enjoy."
Michael Cimarusti: "Well, I think this should tell you something."
Wiley Dufresne: "We all completely finished."
Padma: "My lips are stinging and a little swollen from that Szechuan."
Wiley Dufresne: "It almost ate like the best corner of the lasagna, you know — it was crunchy and chewy and meaty."
Michael Cimarusti: "Delicious job, well done, chef."
Pat LaFrida (deliberation): "Being the meat man, I love carbs, and I love the way that the beef was enveloped into that pancake. Reminded me of some Italian cooking."
Wiley Dufresne (deliberation): "Nostalgia is important. If you can remind somebody of some positive food memory from the past, you have them."
Padma (at a later dish): "My favourite is still Chef [Cara]."
RESULT: Runner-up with a combined score of 86, one point behind Matt. Safe.
