A shaobing (烧饼) is a baked wheat flatbread from northern China. It comes out of the oven layered inside and firm outside, plain or filled, and very often with sesame seeds pressed onto the top. You can buy one at a street stall for breakfast in most northern cities, split it and put something inside … Read more
Two Chinese words, one English phrase. Search for either tangyuan or yuanxiao and you get “glutinous rice balls”, which is accurate and tells you nothing, because the two words do not name the same thing. The short answer is the one most explanations give, and it is right: tangyuan are wrapped, yuanxiao are rolled. But … Read more
Every year around the Mid-Autumn Festival the same complaint goes around in English: mooncakes are expensive, the boxes are absurd, and the things inside are heavy and dry and nobody really wants to eat them. Every year someone answers that you are missing the point, that it is about family and the moon. Both sides … Read more
Search for this snack in English and you will find it spelled two ways. Some pages call it tanghulu. Others call it bingtanghulu, or bing tang hulu. Nobody explains the difference, and if you go looking for one today you will not find it, because there is no longer any difference to find. There used … Read more
Baozi (包子, bāozi) are steamed buns made from leavened wheat dough wrapped around a filling — pork and cabbage, red bean paste, mushrooms, whatever the shop makes. They are sold by the basket from breakfast stalls and steamer carts across China, eaten in the hand, and they are one of the few Chinese foods that … Read more
Stinky tofu (臭豆腐, chòu dòufu) is tofu that has been steeped in a fermented brine until it takes on a powerful smell, then usually deep-fried and eaten hot from a paper cup with chili sauce and pickled vegetables. It is sold from street carts and night-market stalls all over China, from Changsha to the night … Read more
Xiaolongbao (小笼包) are small steamed buns with a hot, liquid filling: a thin, barely-leavened wrapper, a lump of seasoned pork, and a mouthful of soup that is not poured in but forms during cooking. They are sold by the basket, eaten in one bite or two, and they come from Jiading — now the northwestern … Read more
Rou jia mo (肉夹馍) is a Shaanxi street food: chopped, slow-braised pork packed into a round griddle-baked wheat bun. It is sold from Xi’an breakfast stalls and street windows, eaten in the hand, and usually finished in under two minutes. That is the dish. The interesting part is the name, which appears to describe something … Read more
Chongqing xiaomian (重庆小面) is a bowl of fine wheat noodles dressed with a seasoning mix that is built in the bowl before the noodles arrive: soy sauce, red chili oil, ground Sichuan pepper, preserved vegetables, ginger-garlic water, sesame, peanuts, scallions. In the narrow local sense it carries no meat at all. Add beef, or peas … Read more
A square wrapper lies flat, the filling sits off-center, and two side corners are brought together. That compact fold is one reason Sichuan and Chongqing speakers call these dumplings chaoshou (抄手), a word associated with crossed or folded arms. Once boiled and placed in a seasoned bowl of red chili oil, they become hongyou chaoshou … Read more