Chinese Baozi – Chinese food and natural health

February 26, 2020

Baozi

The Baozi (simplified Chinese: 包子; pinyin: bāo zi) are stuffed buns and steamed, very popular in China and Vietnam, where they are known as the bánh bao.

There are different types  as there are a variety of pastries. The dough is generally made from wheat flour and water, sometimes mixed with other flour (soybean, corn). To make the white paste, milk can replace water. Different kinds of meat or vegetable stuffing are wrapped in a kind of dough and the whole is steamed.

Sugary baozi are often stuffed with mashed red beans.

There is no real classification of types by region: the size, the dough, stuffing and cooking instructions are available indefinitely. They may have different names in different regions and dialects. Visually, the baozi eaten in northern China have a larger and coarser, while in the southern regions, they are relatively smaller and more refined. These differences tend to fade due to population migration in mainland China. They persist in the far more refined baozi are more expensive and therefore consumed rather in restaurants or distributed in supermarkets and hypermarkets, while the coarser baozi are instead consumed by the working poor, often sold in small shops and by merchants on the sly, or served in catering to lower prices.

however include:

cairoubao (菜肉 包, Caïrou bāo), literally “bao zi with vegetables and meat”, a generic term for any baozi stuffed with vegetables and meat.

xiaolongbao (小笼 包 / 小籠 包, xiǎolóng bāo), literally “little box of bao zi” very small (4 cm in diameter). They can be served with a sauce. They are characterized by a very fine paste, so essentially made by stuffing. The best known brand is Din Tai Fung Dumpling House (鼎泰 豐, dǐng tài fēng) of which there are establishments throughout the Asia Pacific region.

cha shao bao cha siu bao or (叉烧包 / 叉燒包, chāshāo bāo), which is a stuffed bread with roast pork (叉烧 / 叉燒, chāshāo) native Cantonese cuisine. It is a bread apart because it is the only open up before a second lift, so that the dough rises after opening and gives a special form. To prevent the dough hardens too high temperature, there was a time when a person was charged with spray cool water through the mouth: consumers were then used to remove the surface of the front of the bao zi eat. For reasons of hygiene, nowadays professional kitchen equipment allows the automatic programmable spraying.

shanghai guan tang bao (上海 灌湯 包, ShàngHǎi guàn Tangbao), literally “bao zi filled broth Shanghai.” This is a type bao zi xiaolongbao or not, with a small hole at the top through which broth was poured into the baozi.

nai huang bao (奶 黄 包 / 奶 黃 包, nǎihuángbāo “baozi yellow milk” or 奶 皇 包, nǎihuángbāo), a bread stuffed with sweet cream Egg and butter of Cantonese cuisine, invented by Wang Ting Zhi.

Dousha bao (豆沙包, dòushābāo “bao zi the bean paste”), bean paste (Dousha) that can be adzuki bean (small bean, red), or yellow soybeans or rarely green soybeans. Dousha literally means bean sand because of its slightly granular texture.

lian bao rong (莲蓉 包 / 蓮蓉 包, liánróngbāo), literally “bao zi the lotus paste” stuffed with sweet mashed lotus seeds.

bao shou (寿 包 / 壽 包, shòubāo), literally “bao zi longevity” is a fish-shaped baozi, symbol of longevity, the dough is colored pink and stuffing consists of Dousha azuki. They are served on birthdays.

We may also mention another near the food but not stuffed baozi: mantou (馒头 / 饅頭, Mantu) which is a small steamed bread tasteless or slightly sweet. In Cantonese cuisine, is small (7 cm long against large specimens up to 15 cm), usually served at breakfast to accompany the 粥, zhōu (known as rice soup in France) or eaten as is with sweetened condensed milk.

Note that due to the influence of Chinese culture and the Chinese diaspora, one can find in different parts of the world very different bao zi, such as:

Mongolia, they are called buuz Буу, stuffing is usually sheep.

in Japan they are known as the chūkaman (中華 ま ん?, “Chinese bread”) ま ん being the phonetic transcription 饅. The best known being the nikuman (肉 ま ん?), To the meat.

Viet Nam, they are called bánh bao, stuffing consists of pork, onion, mushroom, egg and vegetables.

the Philippines, they are called siopao, stuffing consists of pork, chicken, mutton or dried shrimp.

Madagascar, they are called pao.

The Goubuli mark (狗 不理, gǒubùlǐ) native of Tianjin is one of the most famous in the world and also one of the oldest brands in China. It means “The Dog is not addressed.” Founded in 1858, it is the number of “Three Tops of Tianjin.”

Founded by Gao Gui You, an apprentice confectioner who invented his own recipe and moved to his account by creating the shop com Ju Hao, the current name is a legend. Mr. Gao’s bao had so much success that he had more time to devote to its customers, which complained in jest: “The Puppy bao sells and does not care for its customers. “For as many Chinese boys had like name milk” Puppy “to be protected from evil spirits.

General Yuan Shikai then based in Tianjin reported the bao zi from his shop to the Empress Dowager Cixi, who actually praise: “Put The rarest and finest, they come from the sky, mountains, the surface of the earth or the sea bottom, do not match the flavor of bao Goubuli, eating is prolonged his life. ” Gao then enjoyed a fame that allowed him to open other facilities. Protected trademark since the 1990s, it was bought by another ancient Chinese brand, Tong Ren Tang Pharmaceutical, in 2005.

For tourist needs of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the brand officially adopts the name of Go Believe as name in English, which caused controversy. Because even if the pronunciation is very close, the brand was very old and consumers think we should keep the old name even for international use.