Shenqiu Gujia Steamed Bread 沈丘顾家馍

Shenqiu Gujia Steamed Bread (沈丘顾家馍) is a wheat-flour steamed bun, often shaped by hand into animals and flowers, made in Laocheng (老城镇) in Shenqiu County (沈丘县), Zhoukou (周口), Henan. The craft is dated to the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, more than 400 years ago, and is on Henan's provincial list of intangible cultural heritage.

How it is made

According to Zhoukou Vocational and Technical College (周口职业技术学院), which filmed the whole process in 2024, the buns are made from wheat flour, given a treatment against cracking and mould, and worked by hand through more than 70 steps, including kneading and rolling. The makers shape it into flowers, birds, insects, the twelve zodiac animals and human figures.

How it is eaten

There are two kinds. One is a plain gourd-shaped bun without decoration, made to be eaten straight away. The other is the decorative flower bun (花馍) shaped by the heritage bearers as zodiac animals, fruit, insects or fish, in exaggerated forms and many colours, with auspicious meanings; these are mostly given for birthday celebrations and as festival gifts. Zhengzhou Institute of Finance and Economics (郑州财经学院) students who visited the craft in 2020 describe the taste as faintly sweet and fragrant, with a very chewy bite.

Where it comes from

Laocheng lies in the south-east of Shenqiu County, 25 km from the present county seat, and was the county seat for long periods from 1497 in the Ming dynasty. The Henan government service portal lists Gujia steamed bread first among the town's local products and names it a provincial intangible cultural heritage item. Each year from the start of the twelfth lunar month, several steamed-bun workshops in Laocheng enter their busiest season making Gujia steamed bread, and flower buns of every kind fill the town's New Year market. In 2020 the craft's seventeenth-generation bearer was Gu Sanhong (顾三红).