LOCAL FOOD GUIDE

Steamed Naked-Oat Rolls 莜面窝窝

Youmian Wowo

Steamed Naked-Oat Rolls is featured among the local specialties of Hebei.

Preparing youmian wowo oat-flour rolls in a bamboo steamer in Hohhot.
Preparing youmian wowo oat-flour rolls in a bamboo steamer in Hohhot. · 呼和浩特一家餐厅正在把莜面窝窝排入竹蒸笼。 Source-recorded photograph date: Taken on 11 December 2015.Photo: ping lin · CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo adjustments

Full-frame source proportionally resized and converted to WebP for display. No subject alteration. Source-supplied marks and edits remain; cards may crop the view.

Steamed Naked-Oat Rolls (莜面窝窝), also written youmian kaolaolao (莜面栲栳栳 or 攸面栲栳栳), are small hand-rolled pieces of naked-oat dough, steamed in a basket and dipped in sauce. They are a classic flour food of the Jin-speaking area (晋语区).

How it is made

The dough is made from youmian (莜面), flour of the naked oat (莜麦), a grain also known as yanmai (燕麦), yumai (玉麦) or youmai (油麦). The cook rubs the dough between the palms into small rolls or into shapes like tiny wine cups, arranges them in a steamer basket and steams them until cooked.

Three rules decide whether the rolls turn out well: the dough is mixed with boiling water, the rolls are shaped quickly, and the heat is kept under control.

Where it comes from

The naked oats for the dish grow in the high, cold country of Shanxi (山西), and the grain is a speciality of the Yanbei (雁北) area. Once out of the steamer, the rolls are eaten dipped in a special sauce.

Source introduction: Wikipedia contributors: 莜面栲栳栳 · CC BY-SA 4.0. English translation and adaptation of the cited encyclopedia revision.

AI illustration: A bamboo steamer packed with upright rolled oat-noodle tubes like a honeycomb.
AI illustration · AI 示意图（菜式参考，非实拍） · 莜面窝窝 — A general serving example; recipes and presentation vary.

China Revealed · Editorially updated 2026-09-24

Sources & reading

Adapted into English from the cited encyclopedia revision and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.