Steamed Buns

Steamed Buns

　　Steamed Buns

　　Steamed buns are a staple food for the Manchu people on both ordinary days and festive occasions, made from glutinous rice. Varieties include bean flour buns, perilla leaf buns, and sticky rice cakes. Bean flour buns are made by grinding yellow millet and broomcorn millet into fine powder, then mixing in bean flour and steaming. These buns are golden in color, sticky in texture, and deliciously fragrant. Perilla leaf buns are made by mixing sticky sorghum flour with mashed red beans, blending them evenly, wrapping the mixture in perilla leaves, and then steaming. They have a distinctive aroma of perilla leaves and offer a unique flavor. Sticky rice cake buns are made by soaking yellow millet, grinding it into flour, wrapping mashed red beans inside the flour dough, and then steaming. These buns can be pan-fried or served with sugar, resulting in a deliciously sweet and fragrant taste. Manchu steamed buns are very filling, easy to carry, and have a distinctive flavor. Even today, they remain quite popular. The "Bun with Sachima" is a nationally renowned Manchu pastry. Its predecessor was a traditional Manchu cake called “Twisted Stick Bun.” To make Twisted Stick Buns, steamed rice is first placed on a rice cake pounding stone and repeatedly beaten with a wooden mallet into a dough, which is then dipped in roasted soybean flour, stretched into strips, deep-fried, cut into pieces, and finally sprinkled with a thick layer of roasted soybean flour. Twisted Stick Buns were an important offering in ancient Manchu culture, hence also known as “Pounded Glutinous Rice Strips.” Later, white sugar replaced the roasted soybean flour, leading to the name “Sugar-Coated Twist,” and eventually it was renamed Sachima. A type of Sachima with brown sugar and a hibiscus-like color is also called Hibiscus Cake by some. These buns are excellent in color, aroma, taste, and appearance, making them widely beloved.

　　Manchu steamed buns come in a wide variety, each with its own unique characteristics. There are golden small steamed cornbread buns, crispy fried sesame twists, soft drizzled cakes, delicate large bowl cakes, as well as golden thread cakes, sun cakes, cool cakes, wine cakes, spring pancakes, and many more—too numerous to list—all leading their own styles and representing traditional Manchu flavors.