 A traditional gua bao | |
| Alternative names | cuapao |
|---|---|
| Course | Snack, delicacy, main dish, side dish |
| Place of origin | China |
| Region or state | Fujian |
| Serving temperature | Hot |
| Main ingredients | Lotus leaf bread, stewed meat, condiments |
| Ingredients generally used | Red-cooked pork belly, pickled mustard, coriander, ground peanuts |
| Variations | Fried chicken, fish, eggs, stewed beef, lettuce |
| Koah-pau | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 割包 or 刈包 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | cut bun | ||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 肉夾包 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 肉夹包 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | meat between buns | ||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||
| Kanji | 角煮饅頭 | ||||||||||
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| Tagalog name | |||||||||||
| Tagalog | kuwapaw | ||||||||||
Koah-pau orgua bao[1] orcuapao[2][3] also known as apork belly bun,[4] ambiguously asbao,[5][6] or erroneously asbao bun,[7][8] is a type oflotus leaf bun originating fromFujianese cuisine inChina.[9] It is also a popular snack inTaiwan,Singapore,Malaysia,Philippines, andNagasaki Chinatown inJapan.
It consists of a slice of stewed meat and condiments sandwiched between flatsteamed bread known aslotus leaf bread (荷葉餅;héyèbǐng). The lotus leaf bread is typically 6–8 centimetres (2.4–3.1 in) in size, semi-circular and flat in form, with a horizontal fold that, when opened, gives the appearance that it has been sliced. The traditional filling for gua bao is a slice ofred-cookedpork belly, typically dressed with stir-friedsuan cai (pickled mustard greens),coriander, and groundpeanuts.[6][10][11]
InHokkien, the wordgua/cua (Chinese:割/刈; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:koah) means to cut by drawing the knife through an object.[12]Bao/Pao (包; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:pau) means "bun", so the namebao bun is redundant. The wordbao (包) inMandarin without any qualifiers is generally used to refer tobaozi.
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The gua bao originated from the coastal regions ofFujian province inChina. It is said to have come from either the cities ofQuanzhou orFuzhou.[13] In Quanzhou, gua bao is known asrou jia bao (肉夹包; 'meat between buns') orhu yao shi (虎咬狮; 'tiger bites lion').[14] The custom ofHui'an people in Quanzhou is to eat these pork belly buns to celebrate the marrying off of a daughter.[15] InJinjiang, a county of Quanzhou, there is a related vegetarian dish known ashu yao cao (虎咬草; 'tiger bites grass') that replaces the pork with a solidified peanut paste and the lotus leaf bread with a bread that is baked in a clay oven similar to a tandoor.[16][17]
InTaiwan, gua bao are believed to have been introduced to the island byFuzhounese immigrants. Fuzhou ricevinasse meat is wrapped in it, and ingredients are chopped and soaked in meat gravy to eat.[18][19] The food is known colloquially in parts ofTaiwan ashó͘-kā-ti (虎咬豬; 'tiger bites pig') inTaiwanese Hokkien due to the mouth-like form of the bun and the contents of the filling.[10] Gua bao was a food that merchants consumed during ritual festivals whenTaiwan was under Japanese rule. According to the research of Yu-Jen Chen, pork was expensive and not easy to acquire at that time, and flour was also scarce. As a result, the gua bao only became a popular street food among the public in Taiwan in the 1970s. Gua bao is now a popular Taiwanese street snack food and often offered withSishen soup (四神湯;sù-sîn-thng) atnight markets.[20]
InSingapore andMalaysia, the dish is popular among theHokkien community, where it is known askong bak pau (扣肉包;khòng-bah-pau).[21][22]
In thePhilippines, it is served inChinese Filipino restaurants throughout the country, where it is known ascuapao (割包;koah-pau).[23][3][24][25][2][26]
In Hong Kong, they are known ascha bao (叉包) which means "fork buns" as the sandwiches are usually pierced by a toothpick or bamboo skewer to keep the fillings in place.
InJapan they are calledkakunimanju[27][deprecated source] and are sold as a Chinese snack food. They are a specialty ofNagasaki Chinatown,[28] having been sold in Japan for centuries due to the large number of Fuzhounese immigrants and historic relations between Fuzhou and Nagasaki represented by the construction ofSofukuji Temple.[29][30] Recognizing the Fuzhounese community and historical connection, Nagasaki and Fuzhou established ties assister cities in 1980.[31]
Gua bao became popular in the early 2000s in the West through chefDavid Chang'sMomofuku restaurants (c. 2004) although he says that he was unaware that the gua bao dish already existed.[32] His Momofuku recipe was born out of a desire to use leftover pork from his ramen, and he was inspired by his dining experiences inBeijing andManhattan Chinatown's Oriental Garden where thePeking duck was served onlotus leaf bread rather than the traditionalspring pancake. He called his creationpork belly buns.[33] The name "gua bao" was used and popularised by chefEddie Huang when he opened his BaoHaus restaurant (c. 2009).[34][35] Many other restaurants serving gua bao have opened up since then, but they often refer to the dish by the ambiguous name "bao" or the erroneous name "bao bun".
In theUnited States,New York City has a significant population ofFuzhounese Americans and gua bao is a popular dish sold at restaurants along with other iconic Fuzhounese dishes such asFuzhou fish balls andlychee pork.[36]
In theUnited Kingdom,Erchen Chang, Wai Ting and Shing Tat Chung opened BAO in London, further popularizing the snack in the West.[15] Gua bao are often calledhirata buns in the United Kingdom, named after Masashi Hirata, the executive chef ofIppudo in New York as many ramen restaurants began to adopt the practise of selling gua bao alongside their ramen dishes due to the influence of Momofuku and to meet high demand from customers who mistakenly believed that the gua bao was a Japanese food item.[37]
There have been many new trendy "gua bao" which incorporate pan-Asian fusion or non-Chinese fillings between the lotus leaf buns, such askimchi orkaraage.[38] Although these are technically not gua bao at all as they do not include pork belly, and in China would only be considered different lotus leaf bun sandwiches (he ye bao).
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