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The working recipe — the Market List, the Method, and where it lives or dies
I
Origin
Guangdong Province — siu mai is documented in Chinese texts from the Song Dynasty; it spread to Japan as shumai via Chinese traders in the early 20th century
II
Description
Siu mai: open-topped dim sum dumpling — the archetypal Cantonese dim sum item alongside har gau. The wrapper is gathered around a pork-shrimp filling into an open-topped cylinder. Top garnished with orange crab roe, green peas, or a single goji berry. The wrapper must be thin enough to be translucent, the filling moist and bouncy. One of the four 'Heavenly Kings' of Cantonese dim sum.
III
The Thread
—Japanese shumai (direct descendant — slightly different filling)
—Korean mandu (open-top variant)
—Vietnamese siu mai (Southeast Asian adaptation)
IV
Flavour Context
Sweet shrimp, savoury pork, delicate wrapper — the most widely eaten dumpling in Chinese cuisine
Pillars V — VII
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