Seafood Steamed Dumplings

Seafood steamed dumplings are a signature snack of Qinhuangdao's Nanbeidaihe and Xianluo Island, famed for their thin skin and generous filling; prawn or mantis-shrimp fillings often hide a whole prawn inside each dumpling, bursting with juice at the first bite.

The Qinhuangdao coast abounds in prawns, mantis shrimp and Spanish mackerel, and local dim-sum houses wrap these into steamed dumplings, taking the form of northern large-filled dumplings but swapping in seafood, until a distinct coastal style emerged, most popular along the Nanbeidaihe shore.

Wrapped and steamed to order and served hot, the dumplings are dipped in garlic vinegar or soy with horseradish; diners nibble a corner to sip the juice before eating the whole, most often taken as breakfast or a meal staple at seafood stalls and dim-sum houses.

A skin so thin it is translucent, a filling of whole prawn that bursts with juice, and the pure taste of the sea set these dumplings apart from their inland cousins.