Zhuqian Meat Pastry 竹堑饼
Zhuqian Meat Pastry is featured among the local specialties of Taiwan.
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Zhuqian Meat Pastry (竹堑饼) is a Han-style pastry (汉饼) from Hsinchu (新竹) with a salty-sweet filling of pork, lard, fried shallots and winter melon. It was first made by the founder of Xinfuzhen (新复珍), a bakery opened in 1898 that is one of the best-known old shops around Hsinchu's City God Temple (城隍庙). Visiting the bakery in 2019, Hsinchu's mayor called its pastry one of the souvenirs that visitors to the city make a point of buying.
Where it comes from
The pastry began as a rice dumpling. According to the Hsinchu City Industrial Development and Investment Promotion Committee, Xinfuzhen's founder, Wu Zhanghuan (吴张换), was twenty and sold zongzi (肉粽), pork rice dumplings, from a stall in front of the City God Temple. To put the business on a steadier footing she turned to pastries, and she tried working the dumpling filling of red shallots, fatty pork and candied winter melon into them. In 2019 the bakery was run by her great-grandson, the fourth generation of the family.
Chinese Wikipedia lists the pastry with sweet potato cakes (番薯饼) as a Hsinchu speciality and notes that it is among the prizes for the gold-medal winner in the sacred pig contest of the Yimin Festival (义民节), held in mid-July of the lunar calendar.
How it is made
The Hsinchu committee lists the filling as black pork, lard, fried shallots, winter melon and white sesame. The filling is wrapped in the pastry skin and then pressed into shape in a mould. Xinfuzhen also makes a small, dainty version for modern eaters who would rather eat something fine than eat their fill.
Flavour and texture
The Hakka Affairs Council describes a loose, crisp crust over a smooth, tender filling, with a fragrant taste that is slightly sweet and salty. The Hsinchu committee calls it a meat pastry that is crisp and soft at once.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.