Wanggezhuang Big Steamed Buns 王哥庄大馒头

Wanggezhuang Big Steamed Buns (王哥庄大馒头) are large wheat buns from Wanggezhuang (王哥庄) subdistrict in the Laoshan (崂山) area of Qingdao (青岛), including elaborately shaped festive buns. Local accounts put their history at more than 500 years, and the decorated buns, known as Laoshan dough modelling (崂山面塑), were added to Qingdao's municipal intangible cultural heritage list in 2015.

How it is made

Qiushi and Dazhong Net sum up the method as dedicated flour, Laoshan water, hand kneading, steaming in iron woks over wood fires and traditional technique. Wanggezhuang grows no wheat. The subdistrict had a flour company develop a dedicated additive-free flour for the buns, and district and subdistrict funds subsidise that flour and the yeast, so that the producers use the same flour and yeast.

Jing Changyan of the Jiuxiangyuan bun shop told Qiushi that the proportions of water, flour and fruit or vegetable juice are strictly limited, because only the right mix gives the right taste.

Where it comes from

The decorated buns are made to order for weddings, births and elders' birthdays, and are shaped as dragon and phoenix, tigers, swallows, longevity peaches, locks and rings. Popular newer designs include the twelve zodiac animals and green-tea and mixed-grain buns. At the ninth decorated-bun contest held in Wanggezhuang in 2017, a 160-jin 'king of buns' titled Dragon, Phoenix and Mandarin Ducks (龙凤鸳鸯) took the gold award.

The buns appeared in the third season of the CCTV documentary A Bite of China (舌尖上的中国). A report on the Shandong Department of Culture and Tourism site lists a June Wanggezhuang bun festival among the ten festivals the subdistrict announced for the year, and at Eryueer Farm (二月二农场), founded in 2009, visitors can try making the buns.