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
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 2 hours
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
As tradition built it
Serves 4. Pork braise 2 hours; buns to steam.
Ingredients
- 800g pork belly, whole piece
- 100g soy sauce, 65ml rice wine, 30g sugar, 1 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, star anise, cinnamon
- 4 folded steamed buns (gua bao/割包), bought or hand-made
- a spoonful, per bao pickled mustard greens (酸菜), chopped
- a dusting, per bao crushed peanut powder
- a little, per bao coriander
Method
- Braise the pork belly whole in soy sauce, rice wine, sugar and aromatics until fully tender, roughly 2 hours at a gentle simmer.
- Slice the belly thickly.
- Steam the buns until warm and pillowy, then fold each one open around a slice of pork, a spoonful of pickled mustard greens, a dusting of crushed peanut and a little 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, and this chapter treats the difference as worth naming rather than blurring.
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.