A white china plate has translucent sweet potato starch dumplings of brown pork shoulder, pale bamboo shoots and dark dry shiitake over pale amber-brown sauce and green cilantro, with wood chopsticks resting beside the plate.
The regional cooking of Taiwan, drawing on many food traditions, with rich night-market snacks.
Ba-wan is a Taiwanese snack with a skin of sweet potato starch and rice flour around a filling of pork and bamboo shoots; two steamed versions take about 15 minutes and about 10 minutes. It is mostly fried north of Changhua and steamed to the south. Beidou in Changhua County is one proposed birthplace, and the late 19th century is one proposed origin period; a story recounted in 2018 places an 1898 flood in the Xihu area of Changhua County. The late 19th-century claim lacks a supporting citation, the locations differ, and the flood story is a legend that cannot establish an origin date.
What
Ba-wan is a round Taiwanese snack: a chewy skin of sweet potato starch and rice flour around a filling of pork and bamboo shoots, eaten with a sauce and cilantro. One version also includes shrimp and dried mushrooms in the filling.1,2,4,5
When
Proposed origins range from the late 19th century to 1898; the former lacks a supporting citation, and the latter appears as a legend in a 2018 column. No dated text was found.1,2,3
Where
Changhua County. One proposed origin is Beidou, while the legend recounted in 2018 takes place in the Xihu area; the accounts differ, and no text was found that settles the township.1,2,3
How
Ba-wan is mostly fried north of Changhua and steamed to the south. Of two steamed versions, one combines rice flour, sweet potato starch and cornstarch with boiling water into a batter, layers it in greased small bowls and steams it for about 15 minutes. The other uses pork, shrimp, dried mushrooms and bamboo shoots as filling, wraps it, steams it for about 10 minutes and serves it with a sweet rice paste sauce.1,4,5
Why
The flood story says the stoves were destroyed and only sweet potatoes remained, leading to a snack made with sweet potato starch; this is a legend, and no written record explaining the preparation's origin was found.2,3
Impact and influence
In 2018, the great-grandson of the temple scribe surnamed Fan in the legend was still selling ba-wan at the family shop in the same area.3
Legend has it that a flood in 1898 destroyed the stoves and left the village with nothing but sweet potatoes. A temple scribe surnamed Fan, who was also a spirit medium, fell into a trance and wrote down a way to make a snack from sweet potatoes and vegetables, and the villagers offered it to the gods and then gave it to the flood victims.
Told in: Retold in a 2018 Taipei Times column, which places the story in the Xihu area of Changhua County and presents it as a legend; no dated text recording the story was found.
The Beidou tale of a man named Fan
Legend has it that during a flood in the Japanese period, a man surnamed Fan wrapped steamed sweet potato dough around vegetables as relief food, and his descendants later added meat.
Told in: Chinese Wikipedia places it in Beidou; the passage is flagged as needing a citation and gives no year.
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is my home version of ba-wan, following mainly a signed cookbook recipe: rice flour, sweet potato starch and cornstarch are stirred with boiling water into a batter, layered in greased small bowls and steamed for about 15 minutes, then served with a sauce and cilantro; that recipe makes 4 to 6. The amounts of pork, bamboo shoots and batter follow that recipe, and the conversion to grams and milliliters is mine. The mushrooms, the sauce, cooking the filling in advance and steaming a base layer in advance are my own choices at home. The other recipe, adapted by a blogger from a cookbook, fills the dumplings with pork, shrimp, dried mushrooms and bamboo shoots and steams them for about 10 minutes; I borrowed the dried mushrooms and left out the shrimp.
Ingredients
Pork shoulder 225 g, diced small (converted from the half pound in that recipe)
Bamboo shoots 1/2 cup (about 120 ml), chopped
Dried shiitake mushrooms 3, soaked and chopped (my own amount)
Light soy sauce, for the filling 1 tablespoon (my own amount)
Cornstarch, for the filling 1 teaspoon (my own amount)
White pepper a pinch
Cooking oil 1 teaspoon for the filling, plus a little to grease the bowls
Rice flour 1/2 cup (about 120 ml)
Sweet potato starch 1/2 cup (about 120 ml)
Cornstarch, for the skin 1 cup (about 240 ml)
Boiling water 2 cups (about 480 ml)
Light soy sauce, for the sauce 2 tablespoons (my own amount)
Sugar 1 tablespoon (my own amount)
Water, for the sauce 100 ml
Cornstarch, to thicken the sauce 1 teaspoon, stirred into 1 tablespoon of water
Cilantro a little, to scatter on top
Steps
Dice the pork small and mix it with 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and the white pepper. Let it sit a little while. Soak and chop the mushrooms and chop the bamboo shoots.
Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a pan and stir-fry the pork, mushrooms and bamboo shoots until the meat changes color. Lift it out and let it cool. This step is my own addition.
Put the rice flour, sweet potato starch and the cornstarch for the skin in a bowl, pour in the boiling water while stirring, and stir to a smooth, thick batter. The proportions of flour to water follow that recipe.
Grease small bowls, spoon in a layer of batter and steam for about 3 minutes to set the bottom layer. This step and the 3 minutes are my own way of doing it.
Set a spoonful of filling on the set layer and cover it with more batter. Steam for about 15 minutes, the time given in that recipe, until the skin turns translucent. I cut one open and turn off the heat once the pork shows no pink.
Make the sauce: bring the soy sauce, sugar and water to a boil, stir in the starch mixture and cook until thick. Let the ba-wan cool for a few minutes, turn them out of the bowls, pour the sauce over and scatter cilantro on top.
Tips
Stir the batter while pouring in the boiling water; in my own experience it mixes more smoothly while hot.
I let the steamed ba-wan cool a few minutes before turning them out of the bowls, so they hold together; that is my own habit.
