Popiah

Closeup of a popiah roll with a filling of bean sprouts and other ingredients
Alternative names	po̍h-piáⁿ
Place of origin	Minnan, China
Region or state	East Asia (Teochew andHokkien-speaking communities),Southeast Asia
Associatedcuisine	Singapore,Indonesia,Malaysia,Mainland China,Taiwan,Thailand,Vietnam,Philippines,Myanmar,Cambodia
Main ingredients	Popiah skin, bean sauce, filling of finely grated and steamed or stir-friedturnip,jicama,bean sprouts,French beans, lettuce leaves,grated carrots,Chinese sausage slices, thinly sliced friedtofu, chopped peanuts or peanut powder, fried shallots, andshredded omelette
Variations	Lumpia, bò bía, ปอเปี๊ยะทอด popia thot
Other information	Eaten duringQingming Festival
Media: Popiah

Popiah
Popiah inSimplified Chinese (top) andTraditional Chinese character (below)
Traditional Chinese	薄餅
Simplified Chinese	薄饼
HokkienPOJ	po̍h-piáⁿ
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin bóbǐng Southern Min HokkienPOJ po̍h-piáⁿ
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese	潤餅
Simplified Chinese	润饼
HokkienPOJ	jūn-piáⁿ or lūn-piáⁿ
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin rùnbǐng Southern Min HokkienPOJ jūn-piáⁿ or lūn-piáⁿ

Popiah (Pe̍h-ōe-jī:po̍h-piáⁿ,Teochew Peng'im: boh⁸ bian²) is aFujianese/Teochew-style freshspring roll filled with an assortment of fresh, dried, and cooked ingredients, eaten during theQingming Festival and other celebratory occasions. The dish is made by the people anddiaspora ofFujian province of China (inQuanzhou,Xiamen, andZhangzhou), neighbouringChaoshan district, and by theTeochew andHoklodiaspora in various regions throughoutSoutheast Asia and inTaiwan (due to the majority of Taiwanese being Hoklo), The origin of popiah dates back to the 17th century.^[1][2]

In theChaoshan dialect andHokkien language,popiah is pronounced as /poʔ˩piã˥˧/ (薄餅),^[3] which means "thin flatbread/cake". Depending on the regions in Fujian, it is also commonly referred to as /lun˩piã˥˧/ (潤餅), which is the etymological origin of "lumpia" in the Philippines and Indonesia. It is referred to asrùnbǐng (潤餅) orbáobǐng (薄餅) inMandarin, and also asbópíjuǎn (薄皮卷).

Apopiah "skin" (薄餅皮) is a soft, thin paper-likecrêpe or pancake made from wheat flour. The method of producing the wrapper involves making an extremely wet and viscous dough. A ball of this dough is held to the right hand, then quickly "rubbed" (擦薄餅皮,Hokkien: chhat po̍h-piáⁿ phê, literally "to rub a popiah crepe") against a hot steel plate in a circular fashion, and lifted.^[4][5] Through this process, a very thin layer of the wet dough adheres to the plate and begins to cook. The upper surface of the crêpe is then usually cleaned of excess pieces of dough using the dough ball through a dabbing process.^[5] When the dough has been cooked to completion, it is peeled off from the hot steel plate before being removed. The rubbing is typically done over two or three plates at once, which allows the baker to continuously produce crepes and gives enough time for each crepe to be properly cooked.^[6]

It is eaten in accompaniment with a sweet sauce (often a bean sauce), a blendedsoy sauce orhoisin sauce or ashrimp paste sauce (蝦膎, hae-ko,Pe̍h-ōe-jī:hê-ko,Tâi-lô:hê-kê), and optionally with hotchilli sauce before it is filled. The filling is mainly finely grated and steamed or stir-friedturnip,jicama (known locally asbangkuang, 芒光,Tâi-lô: bâng-kuang), which has been cooked with a combination of other ingredients such asbean sprouts,French beans, and lettuce leaves, depending on the individual vendor, along with gratedcarrots, slices ofChinese sausage, thinly sliced friedtofu, chopped peanuts or peanut powder, fried shallots, and shreddedomelette. Other common variations of popiah include pork (lightly seasoned and stir-fried), shrimp or crab meat. Seaweed is often included in the Xiamen (Amoy) versions. Some hawkers in Malaysia and Singapore, especially in non-halal settings, will add fried pork lard. As a fresh spring roll, thepopiah skin itself is not fried.

Two common ways of eating this are holding them like a burrito, which some prefer, while others cut the popiah roll into slices and pick them up with chopsticks. It requires some skill to pick the pieces up with chopsticks. Spoons are seldom provided at the establishments.

In China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia there are "popiah parties" at home, where the ingredients are laid out and guests make their ownpopiah with proportions of ingredients to their own personal liking.

In Taiwan,popiah is calledrunbing (潤餅) in Mandarin,jūn-piánn(-kauh) inTaiwanese Hokkien.

The stuffing itself is quite diverse among different places. The basic stuffing includes vegetables that grow in spring, meat and thinly shredded omelette. In some places, they also add noodles, Chinese sausages, stewed vegetables instead of blanched ones, tofu, seafood, sticky rice, and so on.

Furthermore, the way of cooking the stuffing is very different as well. In northern Taiwan, the stuffing is flavoured, stir-fired, sometimes it goes with peanut powder, and the sauce is salty. In southern Taiwan, the popiah stuffing is water blanched without additional seasoning, and flavoured primarily with sugar and peanut powder. For people who live in southern Taiwan, the addition of sufficient sugar is key for popiah. Moreover, some people like to heat or steam the spring roll again after it is made.

Some food stalls serve popiah filled with ice cream. This is a sweet and savory treat - the ice cream is commonly pineapple, peanut and taro flavored, or these three flavors swirled together. The vendor will have a giant block of peanut candy nearby. They will shave this in front of you to create a bed of peanut shavings on the popiah skin. Then the three scoops of ice cream are placed on the bed. It is customary to add a piece of cilantro before the whole thing is wrapped up and handed to you. Some people have dubbed it an ice-cream burrito.^[7]

In Malaysia and Singapore,popiah is part ofChinese cuisine of these two countries. However, in both countries, as well as inBrunei,popiah (especially the fried variant) is also popular as part of local street food. In Vietnam,bò bía is theVietnamese variant of popiah, introduced byTeochew immigrants. It is common to see an old Teochew man or woman sellingbò bía at their roadside stand. InCambodian cuisine,popiah is known asnum por pia (Khmer:នុំពពៀ). InThai cuisine, two types ofpopia (Thai:เปาะเปี๊ยะ) are popular:popia sot (fresh spring roll) andpopia thot (deep-fried spring roll). In addition, Thai cuisine has also incorporated the Vietnamesesummer roll under the namekuaitiao lui suan (Thai:ก๋วยเตี๋ยวลุยสวน). While inBurma/Myanmar, it is known askawpyan (ကော်ပြန့်). Similar foods in other cuisines include theFilipinolumpiang sariwa and theIndonesianLumpia Basah spring rolls which are served withpeanut sauce, etymologically derived from the Hokkien name Lum Pia. Majority of ethnic Chinese in both countries are of Hokkien origin.

• 
  Fried popiah being sold in Malaysia
• 
  Hot and spicy fried popiah, popular in Malaysia. On the left side of the photo, the popiah is coated with heavychili sauce.
• 
  Sweet "Bò bía" sold at a street vendor inHanoi, Vietnam

• Lumpia (the Philippines and Indonesia)
• Chinese pancake
• Burrito
• Fajitas
• Summer roll

Wikimedia Commons has media related toPopiah.

• Popiah Recipe
• Yeo's Teochew Popiah Recipe

• Teochew cuisine
• Fujian cuisine
• Malaysian cuisine
• Singaporean cuisine
• Taiwanese cuisine
• Thai cuisine
• Burmese cuisine
• Stuffed dishes

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