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 Bawan fromTaoyuan, Taiwan | |
| Type | Dumpling |
|---|---|
| Course | Dim sum |
| Place of origin | Taiwan |
| Main ingredients | Dough (corn starch,sweet potato starch,riceflour),pork,chicken,bamboo shoots,shiitake mushrooms |
| Bah-oân | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 肉圓 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | meat circle | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Bah-oân (Chinese:肉圓;pinyin:ròuyuán;Wade–Giles:jou4-yüan2;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:bah-oân;lit. 'meat circle') is aTaiwanesedumpling made of starch andrice flour, filled with meat and vegetables. It is gelatinous and translucent, and often consideredstreet food.
The alternative term "ba-wan" is a non-standardromanization derived fromTaiwanese Hokkien. In the township ofLukang,Changhua County,ba-wan are known asbahhoe (肉回;ròuhuí;bah-hôe; 'meat return') because they take on the block-like shape of the character 回.
It is believed thatba-wan were first prepared in theBeidou township ofChanghua County by a scribe by the name of Fan Wan-chu (范萬居;Fàn Wànjū) as food for disaster relief, when the region was struck by heavy floods in 1898.[1] Since then,ba-wan has spread to different regions of Taiwan and is now considered by many as a national food, and can be found in most night markets in Taiwan. The traditional wrapper was made with sweet potato starch alone, sweet potatoes were the dominant food crop in pre-1950s Taiwan and were traditionally preserved by extracting their starch. The ingredients of the ba-wan reflect theterroir of Taiwan.[2]
The ba-wan is a disk-shaped translucent dough 6–8 cm (2.4–3.1 in) diameter made ofsweet potato starch[3][4] filled with savory stuffing and served with sweet and savory sauce. The stuffing varies widely according to different regions inTaiwan, but usually consists of a mixture ofpork,bamboo shoots, andshiitake mushrooms.[5]Changhua-styleba-wan is considered to be the "standard"ba-wan as it is the most famous and most widely imitated of all styles ofba-wan.[citation needed]
The gelatinous dough is made of a combination ofcorn starch,sweet potato starch, andriceflour, which gives it its chewy, sticky, and gelatinous texture (sometimes described as "Q" in Taiwanese parlance[6]) and a greyish translucenthue.Ba-wan are initially cooked by steaming; however, they may also be served after beingdeep fried to give them a "skin" or gentlypoached in oil to heat them without drying them out. Their form makes them relatively easy to pre-make and store. They can be quickly heated again in oil before serving.[2]
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