Baozi

We drew into a halt: a few huts, a siding, some heaps of abandoned coal. Ragged children were picking them over but they turned and ran for the sleeper coach windows, holding up chipped and coal-blackened bowls for fragments of yesterday’s bread and baozis, pork-filled dumplings.

Some wonderful baozis (steamed white bread) filled with either vegetables, pork, or black bean paste are sold on the streets of most cities and towns scattered throughout the region.

Jericho turned away and inhaled the smell of fresh wontons and baozis. The stand was busy. Two young men with damply glistening torsos, swathed in the steam that rose from huge pots, swung their ladles, passed bowls of broth and crunchy crab and pork dumplings over the counter.