Shaomai, also known as siomai, is a traditional pasta in northern China that is made from wheat flour and water and kneaded into a hard dough, which is then rolled and pressed into a ruffled dough with a mallet, and then wrapped with meat fillings and steamed in a basket.

Siomai was first recorded in historical records in Chinese textbooks published by the Goguryeo Kingdom in the Yuan Dynasty, which recorded that "plain sour stuffing and slightly wheat" were sold in Dadu of the Yuan Dynasty (today's Beijing).

The book's note on "Shaomai" says that thin slices of wheat flour are used to wrap meat, steam it, and eat it with soup. The dialect calls it Shaomai.

Wheat is also sold.

It also says: "The skin is thin and the meat is chopped into pieces, and the top is as thin as a thread, so it is called Shaomai." "Using the dough as the skin and the meat as the stuffing and the top to make the stamens, the dialect calls it Shaomai." If you put it here

Comparing the preparation method of "Shaomai" with modern siomai, we can see that the two are the same thing.

Today, there are still many restaurants in Inner Mongolia written as "Shaomai".

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, although the word "Shaomai" was still used, the names "Shaomai" and "Shaomai" also appeared, and "Shaomai" appeared more frequently.

For example, there is a description of "Peach Blossom Shaomai" in "Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua".

The word siomai appears in books such as "Yangzhou Painted Boat Record" and "Tongqiao Chair and Column Record".

Emperor Qianlong wrote a poem about siomai: "Plates full of wontons are sold, and glutinous rice dumplings with rice noodles are added."

When Emperor Qianlong ate Siomai, he had to ask clearly about its origins, so there is no problem with "biao mai" as the authentic origin of the name.

The "pick-up" here is "siomai".

The cookbook "Tiao Ding Ji" compiled by an unknown person in the Qing Dynasty includes "Shaomai with meat stuffing", "Shaomai with bean paste", "Shaomai with oil and sugar", etc.

Among them, "Lao stuffing siomai" is made with chicken, ham and seasonal vegetables as stuffing.

"Youtang Siomai" is made with diced suet, walnut kernels and white sugar as fillings.

There is also a kind of "braised stuffing" Yafei Shaomai in southern China.

Nowadays, the varieties of siomai in various places are more abundant and the preparations are more exquisite.

For example, Henan has stuffed siomai; Anhui has duck fat siomai; Hangzhou has beef siomai; Jiangxi has egg meat siomai; Shandong Linqing has mutton siomai; Suzhou has three delicacies siomai; Guangzhou has crab meat siomai; Nanjing has egg siomai, etc.

Each has its own local characteristics.

Shaxian Shaoxian Shaomai is different from other Shaoxian Shaomai in that it is round, filled with dried noodles and eaten with secret sauce.

In the early years, Siomai in Hohhot was sold in teahouses, and teagoers always had to replenish their food when they were hungry.

But teahouses are elegant places. Unlike restaurants, which are not afraid of thick oil and smoke, they can only prepare some steamed flour cakes. The side dishes are brought by the tea guests. At most, they can only help roll the meat and vegetables brought by the tea guests into the cakes and heat them.

After a while, I used a few pieces of dough and received a few pieces of dough.

As time went by, even the vegetables in the cakes were included, but the prices were still calculated based on the weight of the noodles. This is how "bake-selling" was born.

Therefore, the price of authentic siomai restaurants is based on the weight of the dumplings. In Hohhot, "two taels of siomai will kill you", so don't order by the amount of dumplings.

There is this record in the "Suiyuan Tongzhi Manuscript" completed in 1937: "Only the take-away items sold indoors are a special feature of food, because tea shops sell them as a side item. As the saying goes, 'side' means 'take-away', so

It is called "take-away". It is also domesticated (in Hohhot) and is famous far and wide. There are also imitations in other counties and other places, but the flavor is slightly inferior.

It mainly specializes in siomai. The restaurants are generally halal and the taste is relatively pure. The taste is completely different from the siomai in other places.

One tael is eight, which is much more than dumplings. If you can eat half a catty, you are really awesome.