The Sinosphere · Volume 36, The Millet Before the Rice, the Noodle a Retreat Invented, and the Tea the Whole World Copied
Gua bao, folded steamed bun
Fujian by way of Quanzhou; Taiwan by way of a dry, hand-held adaptation
Illustration
- Time
- 1 hour
- Researched
- Researched from 239 sources in the brief
As tradition built it
Makes 8. Braise 45 minutes, then 10 to 15 minutes off the heat.
Ingredients
The braise
- 1000g pork belly
- as needed oil
- 20g ginger
- 2 chillies, halved
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- 5 spring onions, in lengths
- 100ml soy sauce
- 2 tbsp chilli bean paste
- 1 tbsp miso
- 120g rock sugar
- 200ml Shaoxing wine
- 2 star anise
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1250ml water
The pickled greens
- 200g pickled mustard greens
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 chilli, minced
- 1 spring onion, minced
- 2 tbsp lard
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- a pinch salt
- a pinch white pepper
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp rice wine
To finish
- 8 gua bao buns, bought
- 100g peanut powder
- 10g coriander
Method
The braise
- Heat oil in a wok and fry the ginger, chillies, garlic and spring onion until fragrant.
- Add the soy sauce and chilli bean paste and stir-fry.
- Cut the pork into slices about 2cm thick. Add the miso, rock sugar and pork, and colour the pork on both sides.
- Add the Shaoxing wine, star anise, sesame oil and water. Cover and braise 45 minutes over a medium heat.
- Turn off the heat and leave 10 to 15 minutes.
The pickled greens
- Shred the greens and soak them in water to draw out the salt. Squeeze dry.
- Heat the lard and fry the greens, garlic and chilli until fragrant.
- Add the sesame oil, salt, white pepper, sugar, rice wine and spring onion and stir-fry until combined.
To finish
- Steam the buns. Fill each with pork, pickled greens, peanut powder and coriander.
Notes
On what changes when this dish travels. When Momofuku in New York put a version of this dish on its menu from 2004, it used roasted pork belly, cucumber and hoisin sauce, a genuinely different, documented divergence from Taiwan's braised and shredded pork, pickled mustard greens and crushed peanut. Neither is wrong on its own terms, but they are not the same dish.
The recipe is chef Qiu Baolang's in the Liberty Times food section. Chen You-sheng's, in the same paper, makes the buns by hand (250g flour, 125ml water, 1 tbsp oil, 3g yeast, 20g sugar, 10g cornflour, 65g a bun, proved 40 minutes and steamed about 12) and sweetens the peanut powder 1 to 1 with sugar. Tomax, the Taiwanese spice company, braises the belly well over two hours.
What a modern chef changes
The belly, and a proper quick pickle
Rung 2
Method
- Cook the pork belly sous vide at a low, precise temperature for full, even tenderness through the piece, then finish with a hot sear or a blowtorch for bark and colour just before serving.
- Make a fast vinegar pickle for the mustard greens rather than reaching for the long-fermented version, for bright, immediate acidity that cuts the richness of the belly without a multi-week wait.
- Toast and grind the peanuts fresh, coarser than a shop-bought powder, for real crunch against the soft bun and tender meat.