Mujin Meatballs

Mujin Meatballs traces to 1868, when Yao Mujin's grandfather opened a rice-cake shop along Aomen Road near Nanhou Street in Fuzhou. Yao Mujin formally took over in 1910 and raised the 'Mujin Meatballs' sign, which the family has carried on ever since.

The shop is a touchstone of old Fuzhou's sweet-and-savory street snacks, woven into local memories of Nanhou Street and the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys, and beloved as a taste of nostalgia.

Despite the name, its 'meatballs' are not solid meat but a dough of taro, sweet-potato starch and rice batter wrapped around a small meat filling and steamed, yielding a chewy outside and tender center that reflects Fuzhou's distinctive rice-cake craft.

A well-known local Fuzhou house, Mujin has long operated in the Nanhou Street area.