Baotou Mutton Shaomai

Baotou mutton shaomai uses a wheat-flour wrapper and a filling of mutton, often with scallion or onion, bound with starch to hold the juices, pleated into a pomegranate shape and steamed, the skin paper-thin and the filling plump and juicy, rich but not heavy.

Shaomai came from the Shanxi-Suiyuan region and was brought to Baotou and Hohhot by merchants and migrants travelling the westward road; with rich pasture and abundant mutton north and south of the Yin Mountains it grew into a local breakfast emblem, a product of the meeting of Mongolian and Shanxi food cultures.

Wrapped and steamed fresh in the early morning, a steamer is brought to the table with brick tea or strong tea to cut the richness; locals take shaomai as breakfast, a few pieces with a pot of tea, the most ordinary morning scene of Baotou street life.

The dainty pomegranate shape, the thin skin and generous mutton-scallion filling, and the custom of pairing it with brick tea are the marks of Baotou shaomai.