Dabu Bamboo Shoot Dumplings 大埔笋粄
Dabu Bamboo Shoot Dumplings is featured among the local specialties of Guangdong.
Dabu Bamboo Shoot Dumplings (大埔笋粄) are half-moon Hakka dumplings from Dabu County (大埔县) in Meizhou (梅州), Guangdong. A starch-based wrapper holds a filling of chopped bamboo shoot and pork. Ban (粄) is the Hakka word for foods made from flour or starch, and the making technique entered Dabu County's intangible cultural heritage list in 2016.
How it is made
The Dabu county government describes the wrapper as tuber starch (薯粉) mixed with boiling water and kneaded, with some cooked taro or sweet potato worked in, then pressed into thin rounds. Nanfang Plus (南方+) specifies cassava starch (木薯粉), kneaded with boiling water into a pliable dough and rolled into thin circles.
The filling is chopped half-fat pork and bamboo shoot; the county government says winter shoots are best. Dried shrimp, shredded squid, shiitake, pepper and salt go in with them. The wrapper is folded over the filling and pinched shut into a half-moon. The county government's method boils the dumplings until they float, while Nanfang Plus describes them being steamed.
How it is eaten
Nanfang Plus describes the cooked dumplings being set in a bowl, dressed with a little sesame oil and heated blended oil, and scattered with Dabu-style fried garlic. It calls them springy, with a fragrance that grows the more you eat. In the county town they are sold on Dabu Food Street (大埔美食街) on Tongren Road (同仁路), a 330-metre arcaded street first built in the early Qing, where each township runs two or three snack shops.
Where it comes from
The Dabu government lists bamboo-shoot ban among the county's traditional Hakka snacks. It also describes a bean version (豆粄) with the same wrapper and a red- or white-bean filling. A 2026 county report on Spring Festival visitors to Dabu's Snack Culture City (小吃文化城) quotes a woman who grew up in Dabu and was back from Dongguan (东莞); she names yizi ban (忆子粄), bamboo-shoot ban and thin pancakes (薄饼) as the three things she eats every time she comes home.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.