Baozi

One of China's favorite breakfast foods and an everyday snack, baozi - or simply bao, as it’s usually called - is a steamed bun, made with the so-called mantou bread, and stuffed with a wide variety of fillings ranging from savory to sweet, but they typically include various meats, seafood, or vegetables.

Most popular types are char siu bao, filled with Cantonese-style barbecued pork; the smaller, mincemeat-filled Shanghai-style baozi called xiao long bao or Shengjian mantou; and the succulent tangbao or guantang bau, large soup-filled bao buns made with pork or crab stock.

These are usually served in their own individual steaming basket, with a straw used to drink the soup while the rest of the bun is eaten later. The flavorful baozi buns were originally known as a peasant dish, but with high-end restaurants breathing new life into this working-class Chinese staple, the once humble steamed bun is finally seeing its renaissance.

In China, however, they are still found in virtually every corner, freshly prepared on the spot using bamboo steaming baskets, and sold by numerous street vendors.