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National Intangible Cultural Heritage · 手工

手工The Process

A single shaomai is not one thing. It is eight moves of the hand — each unchanged since 1738: the wrapper scalded and rolled, its rim laced thin, twenty-four folds gathered, the filling laid in, the crown drawn closed and shaped, the mouth opened, and steam. Scroll to watch one made.

八道工序 · by one pair of hands

Eight moves,
in order

The making runs left → right. Keep scrolling — every step by hand, unchanged since 1738.

Rolling the scalded wrapper with the 走槌 on the floured board.
01烫面皮Roll the scalded wrapper
Lacing the wrapper's edge into the lotus-leaf 荷叶边 rim.
02荷叶边Lace the lotus-leaf rim
Gathering the wrapper into twenty-four pleats.
03二十四褶Gather twenty-four folds
Spooning the seasonal filling onto the laced wrapper.
04时令馅Lay in the filling
Gathering the shaomai closed in the hand.
05收口Gather it closed
Shaping the gathered shaomai by hand.
06塑形Shape it by hand
Opening the pomegranate mouth at the crown.
07石榴嘴Open the pomegranate mouth
The finished tray of shaomai in the bamboo steamer.
08一屉蒸Steam in the basket

皮薄透馅
形如石榴

Thin enough to show the filling, shaped like a pomegranate in bloom. One shaomai — eight moves, one pair of hands.

吴华侠, eighth-generation master of the Duyichu shaomai craft, presenting shaomai before the bronze of the Qianlong Emperor who named the shop.
吴华侠 · Wu Huaxia Eighth-generation keeper of the 都一处 shaomai craft — a deputy to the National People's Congress, a National Model Worker, and winner of the national China Pastry Golden Tripod Award.

8 moves · 24 folds · 1 place

Every shaomai, made this way

By hand, to order, the same eight moves since 1738 — every tray still shaped under the master's own hand. Read the whole shape in three dimensions, or come and turn one over yourself.

Read the shape in 3D → See the fillings → Reserve a table →