Gua Bao

Taiwan's folded steamed bun round braised pork belly, pickled mustard greens, ground peanut and coriander

Origin: Taipei & Taiwan

From the journey of Wheat.

Gua bao is a flat steamed wheat bun, folded like a clam shell before steaming so it opens along a crease, filled with a slab of braised pork belly, sour mustard greens, ground peanut, and coriander. The Taiwanese name for it is more vivid than the Mandarin: in Taiwanese Hokkien it is hó-kā-ti, tiger bites pig, for the way the bun's two lips close over the meat. The bun is the Chinese lotus leaf bun, and the form came to Taiwan with Fujianese settlers, so gua bao belongs to the older Hokkien stratum of the island's cooking rather than to the mainland cuisines that arrived in 1949. What is distinctly Taiwanese is the assembly: the combination of a fatty braise with sharp pickled mustard, sweet ground peanut, and fresh coriander in one mouthful is the balance the island's street food is built on, and every stall grinds its own peanut with sugar. It has a season and an occasion. Gua bao is eaten at the wěiyá, the year-end banquet an employer gives staff in the twelfth lunar month, where the folded bun is read as a purse stuffed with money and eating one is a wish for a prosperous year. It is also associated with the sixteenth day of the lunar month, the tóuyá and wěiyá observances that bracket the business year. The dish travelled under a name it did not have at home. When David Chang put a version on the menu at Momofuku Ssäm Bar in New York in the mid-2000s, it was widely reported as a bao, and the folded bun became a fixture of restaurants worldwide under that single syllable. Chang has said in interviews that his version came out of eating Peking duck buns rather than from Taiwanese street food directly, which is a fair illustration of how a form travels faster than its history.

Ingredients

Buns

400 g plain flour
6 g fast-action dried yeast
40 g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
200 ml milk, lukewarm
20 g lard or neutral oil, plus more for brushing

Pork

900 g pork belly, skin on, in one piece
3 tbsp neutral oil
40 g rock sugar
4 spring onions, cut into lengths
6 garlic cloves, bruised
4 slices ginger
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
120 ml light soy sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
120 ml Shaoxing wine
600 ml water

To fill

200 g pickled mustard greens, rinsed and chopped
1 tsp sugar
80 g roasted peanuts
2 tbsp icing sugar
1 large handful coriander leaves

Method

Make the dough: mix the flour, yeast, sugar, baking powder, and salt, then work in the milk and lard to a smooth firm dough and knead for ten minutes.
Cover and prove until doubled, about an hour and a half.
Meanwhile blanch the pork belly in boiling water for five minutes, drain, and rinse off the scum.
Melt the rock sugar in the oil over a low heat until it turns amber, then add the pork and turn it in the caramel until it colours all over.
Take the caramel to amber and no further. A minute past that it is bitter and the whole braise carries it.
Add the spring onions, garlic, ginger, star anise, and cinnamon and fry for a minute, then pour in both soys, the wine, and the water.
Simmer, covered, for two hours until a chopstick goes through the skin with no resistance, then let the pork cool in its liquid and slice it thickly.
Reduce the braising liquid to a syrup and return the slices to it.
Shape the buns: knock the dough back, roll it out to 5mm, and cut 10cm ovals. Brush half of each oval with oil, lay a chopstick across the middle, fold over, and withdraw the chopstick.
Brushing the fold with oil is what keeps the two lips from sealing to one another in the steamer.
Sit each bun on a square of baking paper, prove for thirty minutes, then steam in batches over a high heat for twelve minutes and leave the lid on for two minutes off the heat before opening.
Fry the drained mustard greens with the teaspoon of sugar for three minutes, and pound or blitz the peanuts with the icing sugar to a coarse crumb. Open each bun and fill with pork, greens, a heavy spoonful of the peanut, and coriander.

Notes

Lift the steamer lid gradually and let the buns sit two minutes off the heat before opening it fully, or the sudden cold makes them wrinkle and collapse. Oil the inside of the fold. The peanut is ground with sugar, not salt, and there should be more of it than looks reasonable; it is the element that makes the mouthful Taiwanese rather than simply a filled bun. Pickled mustard greens are sold tinned or bagged by Chinese grocers and must be rinsed, since they come out very salty. The pork is better braised a day ahead and sliced cold. Unfilled steamed buns freeze well and re-steam in five minutes.

The Gastrographer

Name: Gua Bao
Prep time: 2 h 40 min
Cook time: 2 h 15 min
Total time: 5 h
Yield: 10
Cuisine: Taipei & Taiwan
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour; 6 g fast-action dried yeast; 40 g caster sugar; 1 tsp baking powder; 0.5 tsp salt; 200 ml milk, lukewarm; 20 g lard or neutral oil, plus more for brushing; 900 g pork belly, skin on, in one piece; 3 tbsp neutral oil; 40 g rock sugar; 4 spring onions, cut into lengths; 6 garlic cloves, bruised; 4 slices ginger; 2 star anise; 1 cinnamon stick; 120 ml light soy sauce; 2 tbsp dark soy sauce; 120 ml Shaoxing wine; 600 ml water; 200 g pickled mustard greens, rinsed and chopped; 1 tsp sugar; 80 g roasted peanuts; 2 tbsp icing sugar; 1 large handful coriander leaves

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control