Rice-Skin Dumplings 粉饺
Rice-Skin Dumplings is featured among the local specialties of Guangxi.
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Rice-Skin Dumplings (粉饺) are a traditional dish of Nanning (南宁), Guangxi, eaten there at any of the day's three meals. They are shaped like northern Chinese jiaozi, but they are made from rice, and the method has little in common with that of ordinary dumplings.
How it is made
The wrappers are made by hand. Selected rice is washed and soaked, ground into a rice slurry and drained into damp rice flour. This is kneaded into a lump, steamed until about half cooked, worked again by hand into a dough and pressed into a thin sheet with a large pole, and only then rolled out into wrappers. Makers add no additives to the dough, and a cook's skill is judged by how the wrapper feels in the mouth.
The filling is chopped pork mixed with shiitake mushrooms and wood-ear fungus. Each dumpling is pinched shut and pressed with a pattern along the edge, and the finished dumplings steam for a little over ten minutes; the whole process takes more than ten steps.
Flavour and texture
Out of the steamer the dumplings are translucent and plump, and smell of rice as well as pork and mushroom. The rice wrapper is springy, smooth and chewy, and the wood-ear fungus in the filling stays slightly crisp.
How it is eaten
A row of dumplings is lifted from the steamer onto a plate, dressed with a few drops of sesame oil and a pour of wampee sauce (黄皮酱), made in Nanning from wampee fruit. The sweet-sour, fruity sauce cuts the richness of the pork. In the old streets and lanes of Nanning, diners eat them in simply furnished dumpling shops.
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.