Warm Mushroom Buns

Warm Mushroom Buns

　　In the rural areas of Taining County, every year on the traditional “Spring Society Day,” families make a large number of warm mushroom buns to offer to the Earth God, praying for a bountiful harvest. On this day, relatives and friends from near and far visit each other to taste these buns, a custom that has been passed down to this day. Depending on the ingredients used, the making of warm mushroom buns is divided into two types: sticky rice cakes and steamed buns. The wrappers are made by blending warm mushrooms into the slurry of ordinary non-glutinous rice. Warm mushrooms, scientifically known as Gnaphalium affine, grow in fields in early spring. They have a sweet flavor, are picked and dried in early spring, and emit a fragrant aroma. They are believed to help relieve coughs, dissolve phlegm, strengthen kidneys, and benefit tendons. There are generally two types of fillings: one is a savory filling, typically stir-fried with cured meat, bamboo shoots, and shiitake mushrooms; the other is a sweet filling, mainly made with red beans and brown sugar. In shape, savory buns are made elongated, while sweet buns are round, to distinguish between them.

　　Warm mushroom buns are best eaten fresh out of the pot — white with a tinge of green, soft, oily, smooth, and fragrant, making your mouth water. If you sip a mouthful of rich and refreshing Taining rice wine and eat a delicious warm mushroom bun, it offers an even more unique and delightful flavor.

　　There is a saying that warm mushroom buns are “little mouse-straw herb buns wrapping mountain delicacies.” Made with “mouse-straw herb” and rice slurry as the main ingredients, the dough is pounded into a paste and then filled with stuffing such as shiitake mushrooms, black fungus, smoked meat, shredded bamboo shoots, and dried tofu. Mouse-straw herb is a small fuzzy-leaved plant that blooms small yellow flowers in fields during spring. Every year, every household in Taining makes warm mushroom buns to offer to the Earth God, praying for a good harvest in the new year.