Sitiao Steamed Buns 四条包子
Sitiao Steamed Buns is featured among the local specialties of Hebei.
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Sitiao Steamed Buns (四条包子) are pork-filled buns from Shanhaiguan (山海关), distinguished by juicy filling and a wrapper made from partly risen dough. The shop opened in 1958. Qinhuangdao Release (秦皇岛发布) describes buns about six centimetres across, each closed with eighteen fine pleats.
How they are made
The filling uses pork from the main body of the animal, minced into small pieces rather than reduced to a smooth paste, together with scallions. The shop uses a traditional dough starter mixed with fresh dough and stops fermentation before it is fully risen. Proprietor Shen Peihua (沈佩华) explains that this wrapper holds the juices around the filling instead of absorbing them into the dough.
How to enjoy them
Shen recommends eating the buns hot, when the rich pork filling releases its juices. She recalls a one-jin ration coupon buying thirty buns. The shop’s older weight measure counted flour alone, excluding the filling.
The old-town shop
After moving outside the old town during a conservation project, the shop returned to its South Street (南大街) location in April 2011.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-26. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.