SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This summer on our show, we're taking a global tour of breakfast - plantain in Ecuador, pudding in Syria. Today, China. Of course, it's a vast and famously diverse country with a wide range of cuisines. But there is one item common to almost every Chinese region - the bun, stuffed with meat, vegetables or both. As NPR's Jennifer Pak reports, buns are often a breakfast staple.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNIFER PAK, BYLINE: It's 8 a.m. on a workday at a shop outside Tuanjiehu Park, selling buns, or baozi. The line is constant, but it moves fast.
UNIDENTIFIED SALESPERSON #1: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: Staff pluck stuffed white buns from bamboo steamers, plop them into flimsy plastic bags piping hot. A repairman takes the buns to his electric scooter.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: (Speaking Mandarin).
Before I could ask what fillings he got, he's already eaten them and zips off to his next job.
(Speaking Mandarin).
Buns are one of the few Chinese foods people here can eat on the go, and they're also affordable.
(Speaking Mandarin).
For two soy sauce pork buns - this shop's best seller - one pickled veg, another with eggplant and green peppers, plus two cups of fresh soybean milk, a breakfast for two comes to...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED SALESPERSON #2: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: (Speaking Mandarin) 19.50. It's, like, about three bucks.
MICHAEL ZEE: Breakfast items in China are all relatively cheap.
PAK: That's Michael Zee, author of "Zao Fan," a book about breakfast in China. His favorite bun comes from a shop in eastern China's Shaoxing city. It starts with buns without a filling, called mantou.
ZEE: They use a sourdough rice ferment, and they make these incredibly light mantou. And then, when you order them, they get a pair of chopsticks. They crack it open. They put a massive chunk of hong shao rou inside.
PAK: That's red braised pork, sticky and sweet.
SAMANTHA ZHAO: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: For Beijing resident Samantha Zhao (ph), she says pork and fennel buns are her favorite, though she doesn't eat buns as often as before.
ZHAO: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: "Baozi is a bit unhealthy," she says. It's easy to eat too many, like four in one go. And they contain quite a bit of dough and oil.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LONG DISTANCE")
WEIBIRD: (Singing in Mandarin).
LALA HSU: (Singing in Mandarin).
PAK: But then she couldn't resist when passing by this trendy bun shop called Bao Er Jiu (ph), near Beijing's Confucius Temple and Imperial College. This shop likes to experiment with fillings. Its signature bun piqued the curiosity of NPR's Beijing producer Jasmine Ling.
JASMINE LING, BYLINE: Chocolate red bean bun. Not bad.
PAK: (Speaking Mandarin).
LING: No. No. It's not.
PAK: It's not that sweet.
To stand out from competitors, this shop also holds workshops like these...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Mandarin).
(APPLAUSE)
PAK: ...Where the resident baozi master teaches people to make buns. One of the students is Bai Qiufei (ph).
BAI QIUFEI: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: "It turns out," he says, "it takes a lot of skill to make a simple bun."
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Mandarin).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: And making baozi is a good way to disconnect, says the shop's cofounder Lu Yao (ph).
LU YAO: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: "A lot of people I know are feeling anxious about the development of AI," she says. Plus, living in Beijing is stressful. Her big dream is to expand overseas.
LU: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: "After all, Chinese people are all over the globe. And food," she says, "like baozi, is the best way to connect to home."
Jennifer Pak, NPR News, Beijing. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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