hangzhou baozi

My morning class is now over, and lunch time is near.

I take to the busy streets of Beijing and head toward my favorite diner: a small hole in the wall that specializes in steamed buns and steamed dumplings.

The small restaurant is impossible to miss; circular stacks of bamboo steamers rise like culinary skyscrapers from atop the barrel of boiling water. Steam pours through the trays, around the stacks. Every so often a woman ducks out into the open, shuffles the trays and disappears again, back into the restaurant she's processing even more buns :

flour + steam = baozi

I used to duck in for take-out and buy a tray of garlic-chive and egg steamed buns for just ¥3.5 (just over USD0.50), then continue on my way homeward. But lately, I've decided to stick around for a sit-down meal.

Vegetarian buns are sold out at the moment, which I infer only from her pause and simple comment, "wait awhile." A simple reply of "okay" is enough to put in my order.

I regret not asking how long a wait it will be, but I realize that time is an honest teller. So, I take my seat and listen to the TV that blares from the front corner: an ancient soap with characters befuddled in a time of war.

My gaze follows the woman, who stands at the front of the restaurant, her seasoned hands dusted with flour and crusted with tendrils of dough:

bamboo manger: where baozi are born

Her husband appears from a door at the back, and silently delivers two bowls of broth to the girls at a neighboring table. I decide soup will be a wonderful way to pass the time, and place another order with him, which he silently takes into the shop's rear kitchen.

In China, one *drinks* soup [喝糖]. Below, a simple egg drop soup in hot water, with a double sprig of seaweed and cilantro for aroma:

scrambled egg drops the soup

Before I had time to drink mine, the wait for steamed buns proved fruitful; a tray made just for me:

garlic & chives egg the baozi

A boazi and tang (dumplings and soup) set, complete with a friendly serving of red chili & oil, black malt vinegar, and dark sweet soy:

the friendliest chili you'll ever taste

Still not tempted? Visit the bun shop for yourself:

the Hangzhou Diner

Note: Access to Blogger is still blocked within China. Without access to a much appreciated VPN (proxy), I would be unable to publish to my blog from within mainland China. Thus, I am blessed and grateful to be sharing. With every post, I hereby protest the oppressive nature of the Chinese government blocking access to any part of the web.