Three-Diced Steamed Buns 三丁包子
Three-Diced Steamed Buns is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Three-Diced Steamed Buns (三丁包子) are leavened steamed buns from Yangzhou (扬州), Jiangsu, filled with diced chicken, diced pork and diced bamboo shoot, the 'three dice' of the name. They are a fixture of Yangzhou morning tea (早茶) and closely tied to Fuchun Teahouse (富春茶社), whose snack-making technique is on China's national intangible cultural heritage list.
Ingredients
Chinese Wikipedia's article on Yangzhou sets out the classic choice: the chicken comes from a hen kept past its first year, for meat that is both fatty and tender; the pork is belly-rib meat (五花肋条) with a moderate layer of fat; and the bamboo shoots are fresh ones picked to suit the season. The Yangtse Evening Post (扬子晚报) sums up their roles: the chicken adds savour, the pork adds richness and the bamboo shoot adds crunch. The filling keeps to a rule of 'three parts fat, seven parts lean' (三分肥七分瘦).
How it is made
The buns are judged on the leavened dough as much as on the finely worked filling; the finished bun is soft and does not stick to the teeth. At Fuchun each one is shaped with a body puffed out like a water chestnut and a 'crucian-carp mouth' (鲫鱼嘴) of 32 pleats gathered at the top to seal in the filling.
Where it comes from
Fuchun Teahouse stands in Deshengqiao Lane (得胜桥巷) in the centre of old Yangzhou. It dates from 1885, the eleventh year of the Guangxu reign (光绪) of the Qing dynasty, and began as a flower shop that Chen Buyun (陈步云) turned into a teahouse in 1912. Its three-diced buns, thousand-layer oil cake (千层油糕) and jade shaomai (翡翠烧卖) won the Chinese culinary Golden Tripod award (金鼎奖) and were named 'famous Chinese snacks' (中华名小吃). The Fuchun teahouse snack-making technique entered the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2008, in the second batch.
Yangzhou also makes a richer 'five-dice' bun (五丁包), which adds sea cucumber and shrimp to free-range chicken, pork and fresh bamboo shoot.
How it is eaten
The buns are eaten at Yangzhou morning tea, which the Yangtse Evening Post links to an unhurried way of life summed up in the saying 'in the morning, skin wraps water' (早上皮包水). At Fuchun they sit alongside the teahouse's own Kuilongzhu tea (魁龙珠), a blend of tea from three provinces brewed with Yangtze water.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.
Image credits & notes (1)
- Reference photo of a similar dish · 同类菜品参考照片A similar preparation is pictured; the local version may differ. 同类菜品参考照片，当地做法可能不同。Photo: Popo le Chien · CC0Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited. Thumbnails may show a cropped view.
