Seaweed Steamed Buns 海菜包子

Seaweed Steamed Buns (海菜包子) are steamed buns filled with seaweed and pork, a dish of Yantai (烟台) and above all of Changdao (长岛). A Yantai host quoted in a 2024 Yantai Evening News (烟台晚报) column called them long established there and a favourite with diners from all over. They are round, pleated and about the size of a fist.

Ingredients

Several kinds of seaweed are used. The commonest, according to the same column, are deer-horn seaweed (鹿角菜), laver (紫菜), a seaweed called heicai (黑菜), wakame (裙带菜), and a fine, soft, smooth, earth-brown seaweed known as "骆驼毛" (camel hair). The seaweed is mixed with pork belly, chopped scallion, shredded ginger, minced garlic, peanut oil and fine salt.

How it is made

The filling is wrapped in hot-water dough and the buns are steamed. On Changdao cooks choose this scalded dough over leavened dough: it is less fluffy but chewier, whereas raised dough tends to burst at the pleats in the steamer and let the filling and juices leak.

Flavour and texture

The first taste is the faint sea smell of the seaweed, followed by the pork and oil and the herbal notes of scallion, ginger and garlic.

How it is eaten

According to the host and a restaurant chef who spoke to the columnist, serving Seaweed Steamed Buns is a fairly formal way for Changdao people to treat guests: not a custom as such, but a practice kept up for many years.