Minced Meat Pastry

Minced Meat Pastry

　　 Minced Meat Pastry is a type of imperial snack among Beijing’s street foods.

How the Pastry Is Made:

Minced Meat Pastry is made differently from regular baked wheaten cakes. The fermented dough is first prepared, then mixed with a bit of alkaline water and some white sugar and kneaded until smooth. The dough is divided into small pieces, which are then flattened into round discs by pressing them with the palm on a work surface. One of these discs is held in one hand, while a small dough ball weighing about 2 grams is coated with a little sesame oil and placed in the center of the disc. The small ball is wrapped inside, then pressed into a flat, round cake about 5 cm thick. The surface of the pastry is brushed with sugar water, sprinkled with sesame seeds (seeds facing up), and baked on a special griddle using charcoal fire. When eating, the pastry is split open to remove the small dough ball, leaving a hollow in the center that can be filled with stir-fried minced meat.

Pork is chopped into mince, green beans are washed and also minced, and scallions and ginger are chopped separately. Oil is added to a pan and heated, then the pork mince is added. Once the mince is cooked and no longer watery, scallion and ginger pieces are added, followed by the minced green beans. After stirring briefly, soy sauce is poured in and stirred until the sauce is mostly absorbed, then the mixture is removed from heat and served in the pastry.

It is said that this way of eating was invented by Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty.

The Fangshan Restaurant in Beihai Park serves this pastry daily, and it has received high praise from both domestic and international guests. On the afternoon of May 23, 1975, former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, during his convalescence, visited Fangshan Restaurant. After tasting the Minced Meat Pastry, he said, “Your pastry is very good, not found elsewhere. The minced meat I’ve eaten for many years is also good, but you just can’t make it taste the same at home. I suggest improving it—perhaps adding diced bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and lotus seeds to the meat, and adjusting with light ingredients according to the season.” Based on this suggestion, Fangshan Restaurant made improvements, and the flavor of the Minced Meat Pastry became even more delicate and unique.