Qing Feng Steamed Stuffed Bun Shop (慶豐包子鋪)

People living at most regions of China prefer to eat steamed buns stuffed with veggie, meat or combination of both for breakfast. The steamed buns are so tempting especially when you passing by a steamed-bun selling window, smelling and seeing the flavored steam coming out of the steamer. While you are wondering the fillings of the steamed buns, you’ve already started drooling and slowed your rushing pace to the office.

Qing Feng Steamed Stuffed Bun Shop is my favorite steamed bun restaurant in China. It was founded in 1948, and named “Wan Xing Ju”. At that time, it’s a restaurant serving side plates, stir fired dishes and rice etc. Since 1956, Wan Xing Ju’s public and private sectors have merged, rebranding as a specialized business in making steamed buns. They offer good quality stuffing, flour, secret ingredients (in a good way), and versed bun chef teams to make their steamed buns to stand out from the crowd.

Steamed buns with pork and shredded seafood,veggies and seafood, prawns,preserved veggies,veal and green onions,carrots and veal and you name it. Except from the signature steamed buns, they also serve a variety of appetizers, side plates and seasonal specialties with options of ten categories – wonton with chicken soup, purple rice congee, sautéed veal, crisp fish, and the most popular traditional cuisine called “chaogan” (stir-fried liver, to some it may sound “phew…er…”, but it is yum!)

Can you imagine how fast these talents can make various steamed buns? I don’t know, but I’ve seen them making once – extremely fast!

Believe it or not: Qing Feng Steamed Stuffed Bun Shop is also Xi Jinping’s (President of China) favorite steamed bun restaurant. Since President Xi visited Qing Feng and ordered “pork buns with green onion + stir-fried Chinese mustard+ stir-fried liver”, “President combo” has soon been released and promoted since last year. You could imagine how popular this set is.

The popular “President Combo” – Pork Buns with Green Onions + Stir-fried Chinese mustard + Chaogan!

For those who are ambitious enough to try to make steamed buns themselves, I share the video clip that I think is the most classic way of making buns according to my beloved mommy.

“Jian Bing Guo Zi” – Energize your morning with Chinese crepe

A typical and popular mobile brekkie stand parking around a corner of a residential building is Jian-Bing-Guo-Zi stand selling freshly cooked Chinese crepe. It’s quick, warm and tasty. An easy choice fits people who go to work or school and do not have time to cook their brekkie at home.

What is Chinese crepe (Jian Bing Guo Zi – in Chinese characters:煎饼馃子)?

Chinese crepe originates in Tianjin, and it was evolved from Shandong crepe over 100 years ago. It was said that Shandong crepe was created by a Chinese Muslim with the surname Ma. The old Chinese crepe only contains a big crepe with a Chinese cruller/doughnut（Youtiao）and Welsh onion.

Later on Tianjiners enrich the ingredients in Shangdong crepe to make it tastier and filling enough for people to stay unstarved till lunch break.

Many Chinese crepe stands look alike. How can you tell which one is tasty? A classic Chinese crepe includes crepe made with white flour, an egg, crispy and crunchy pastry or Chinese doughnut, green onions, bean sauce and chili paste. Personally, I prefer crepe made from five-grain flour, 2 eggs, some fresh vegies, bean sauce and chili paste.

In my hometown Nanjing, I know where to find the tastiest crepe, and even the stand owners’ nicknames. But when I travel to a new city in China, and I love Chinese crepe for my brekkie. I usually walk up close to several crepe stands around to tell 1) sanitariness, 2) options for fillings, 3) options for flour paste; obviously, the cleaner, the more choices, the better. But on top of all the factors for choosing a crepe, do pay attention to if the cooks wear cooking gloves when they are cooking, and if they take off the gloves while they receive the money and give you back the changes.

Let’s visually experience how a Chinese crepe is cooked? It’s hard to find an authentic video clip with English subtitles. This one is the best one so far.

The visual feeling of the crepe stand on the live street just makes me miss my crepe so badly. BUT! For those who are craving for a taste like me, the good news is a transformed Chinese crepe restaurant not a Stand called Huangtaiji (黄太吉)is planning to open up their first Chinese crepe restaurant in the New York City soon. How can they make that happen? Because they are extremely popular in China now, even hotter than the street stands, that’s why they are now so loaded enough to open up a store in the crazily expensive and fabulous New York City. Look at their popularity on Weibo (Chinese Twitter) -http://www.weibo.com/u/2813050101.

 

Nanjing Cooked Food Stall (南京大排档)- Retain the Old Flavor

It’s my first time to celebrate the Spring Festival abroad without my family. Though the Spring Festival here in NYC is exotic and blended with vibrancy, I can’s stop thinking of the specialties in my hometown Nanjing – Nanjing Da Pai Dang!

Nanjing DaPaiDang (ND) was open up in 1994 in Nanjing, a Southeast city of China. Now its popularity has reached out to the capital city Beijing. When you enter ND, the outfit of the waiters and their iconic welcoming words with a distinctive accent, and ND’s décor will immediately transcend you into the restaurant cafés existed in the late Qin Dynasty and early Republic (around 1911) in China.  The outfits of the staffs there indicate their roles, whether they are cooks, waiters, waitresses, bartenders, or performers. The décor mimic the bustling food streets in the 1900s with “cooks” hawking about their scrumptious specialties. In ND you can either choose someone to take your order or hanging around with your table tag to order at your favorite stand. Personally it’s more fun to come to the your favorite food stall where you can see the live cooking process and a tempting presentation of all kinds of dishes you can get. Once you finish struggling and finally decide what you’d love to eat, show your table tag to the boasting cook, they will note down your table number in the small order device. When you finish the live order, make sure you can find your way back to the table in the crowd since the food could be on your table already, and you certainly don’t want your food lacks bites after someone passes by your table.

Here are four ND’s signature specialties that you can find nowhere with that level of authenticity in the world-

Handmade taro balls with soup cooking in ancient style—Award-winning traditional desert in China:

Tiny sticky balls/cubes with red bean and fermented-rice wine– My favorite dish and unforgettable hometown flavor!!! Plus, this dish is particularly healthy for women during their “special days”. Luckily, I can cook this desert:

King steamed bun filled with roasted duck – the most distinctive and creative steamed bun ever, you can only eat the authentic one in Nanjing rather than other branches. You’ll certainly miss the appetite organism after the first speechless and juicy bite. Look around, you should be surprised if you can’t find stacks of empty steamers around you:

Large meatball – We call it “the lion’s head”. Don’t be afraid. It’s only because its incredible size and taste. If you close your eyes while you are having the first bite. It’s hard to tell if it’s meat or tofu or mix of other kinds. The only thing you can describe to a friend: how can the “big ball” taste sooo f***ing good?

Last but a must thing to remember: Do not just lost yourself in the food. Try to enjoy Chinese traditional musical storytelling: Suzhou Pingtan.