MUZIChinese Matrix
Steamed Buns · FFET10226
Cornmeal pressed into small cones with a hollow base and steamed, a coarse-grain bun of northern China.
A small round white porcelain bowl holds yellow buns made from finely ground cornmeal, each steamed bun shaped into a small cone with a hollow base, with a pair of wooden chopsticks resting beside the bowl.
Leavened dough steamed into plain buns, filled buns and rolls.
Wowotou is a small steamed bun of cornmeal or mixed-grain flour, pressed into a cone with a hollow in the base. This northern Chinese bread was once an inexpensive staple for the poor; English-language journals from 1927 to 1938 discuss its shape and mixes of millet, sorghum and soy. In 2025, small wowotou was among the specialties of the Fangshan tea house, founded in 1925 by former Qing palace cooks and later renamed the Fangshan restaurant. No dated primary text opened for verification was found for this entry.
Wowotou is a small steamed bun made of cornmeal or mixed-grain flour, shaped into a cone with a hollow left in the base.1,2,4,5
English-language journals from 1927 to 1938 discuss wotou's names, shape and mixes of millet, sorghum and soy. A Qing book describes a hollow snack called wowo, named Yu'ai wowo, the imperially loved wowo, because someone in the Ming palace liked it. Its date of origin remains uncertain; both accounts are second-hand, and the original texts have not been checked.1,2
Wowotou is a northern Chinese bread associated with Beijing; one recipe version is linked to Tianjin home cooking. Its place of origin remains uncertain.1,4,5
Cornmeal (sometimes mixed with millet, sorghum or soy flour) is mixed with water into a firm dough, rolled into small balls, pressed with the thumb into hollow cones and steamed for 30 to 40 minutes; another, sweet version adds milk and glutinous rice flour and steams for just 8 minutes. In 2025, the Fangshan tea house offered a small version.2,3,4,5
Wowotou was once an inexpensive staple for the poor. The listed materials give no other reason.1,4,5
In 2025, the Fangshan tea house, founded in 1925 and renamed the Fangshan restaurant in 1956, was known for pastries and snacks such as small wowotou, ground-meat shaobing and pea cake.3
Legend has it that when the Eight-Nation Alliance entered Beijing in 1900, Empress Dowager Cixi fled and was given a corn bun on the way. Back in the palace she had the cooks make a refined version, which became the small wowotou. English Wikipedia sources this just to tourism sources and calls it a legend.
Told in: Told in Beijing and tied to the palace kitchen, found in the English Wikipedia entry on wotou, which calls it a legend.
The story goes that a hollow snack called wowo was named the imperially loved wowo because someone in the Ming palace liked it. This is the account in the Qing book Xiangyan Jieyi, as quoted by Chinese Wikipedia; the book itself was not opened here.
Told in: An account from the Beijing area in the Qing book Xiangyan Jieyi, quoted by Chinese Wikipedia.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is my simplified home version of wowotou: cornmeal with a little flour and baking powder, pressed into small cones and steamed. The amounts and the steaming time follow the former recipe, from the blog of a writer on Chinese food who ties it to Tianjin home cooking. The latter recipe comes from a cooking blog that names no individual author; it is a sweet adaptation with milk, condensed milk and glutinous rice flour, steamed for just 8 minutes, and I did not follow it. The way I check that it is done is my own.
Allergens: wheat
