Jianyang Shuiji Pork Wontons 建阳水吉扁肉

Jianyang Shuiji Pork Wontons (建阳水吉扁肉), known locally as bianrou (扁肉) or bianshi (扁食), are pork wontons from Shuiji town (水吉镇) in Jianyang District (建阳区), Nanping, Fujian, made with a filling of hand-pounded pork.

How it is made

The filling starts with fresh local pork from the hind leg. The maker checks it by touch, since fresh meat feels slightly sticky, and says meat chosen this way pounds into a crisp, springy filling. He slices it thin and even on the board, then beats it with a wooden mallet, lightly at first and then harder, working with the grain of the meat. After ten minutes or more of pounding the pork has become a fine paste.

The mixing is the key step. Salt, MSG and baking soda go into the paste, then ice water, and the mixture is stirred clockwise with both arms for at least half an hour, two people taking turns, until it turns sticky and elastic. Beside it stands a bowl of cracklings rendered from fresh pork fat, a tradition the maker's family keeps strictly and the 'soul' of the Shuiji wonton filling.

Where it comes from

Historical records show that in the Republican era Shuiji's streets had fifteen bianrou shops and three mobile bianshi carrying stalls (扁食担), whose wooden clappers and pots of hot soup served people coming home late at night.

The Shuiji bianrou (bianshi) making craft is now in the first batch of Jianyang District intangible cultural heritage items. Its representative inheritor, a craftsman in Yuyao village (玉瑶村), has bought fresh local pork every morning for more than thirty years. His workshop sends vacuum-packed wontons across China every day, and Jianyang people living in Fuzhou and Shanghai receive them by cold-chain courier.