Ba-wan, a Taiwanese street food, is a pork stew inside a coagulated dumpling made of rice flour and starches. It’s typically steamed or fried and served with a sweet and savory gravy. The filling includes pork, mushrooms, bamboo, onion, garlic, and dried shrimp. The dough is made with rice flour, potato starch, and sweet potato starch. The dish is often referred to as Changhua rou-yuan and is believed to have been created in the Changhua region around four centuries ago.
More than just a meatball, the Taiwanese street food known as ba-wan, or rou-yuan in Mandarin, is a rather simple culinary delight. Though the translation is roughly “lump of meat” or “circle of meat,” it’s more of a thick pork stew trapped inside a coagulated dumpling made of rice flour and some special starches. One of Taiwan’s most ubiquitous foods, these circles of meat are typically steamed or fried, then drizzled in a sweet and savory gravy on the plate.
According to Taiwan’s official government website dedicated to the country’s most famous recipes, ba-wan is often referred to as Changhua rou-yuan, referring to the country’s Changhua region. This is where many believe the dish was first created. While it’s unclear how long it was made as street food, some estimates put the dish around four centuries ago.
The ground or minced bits of pork that form the insides of the ba-wan are hardly alone. Mushrooms are also a regular part of this recipe, as are chopped bamboo, onion and garlic – all sautéed until they could be eaten on their own as a stew. Many chefs also use small dried shrimp in the medley, which ends up swimming in a sauce made from soy, wine, sugar, salt, pepper and oil.
The signature dough is made with a combination of rice flour, potato starch, and sweet potato starch. After the dough has formed, it is spread across the bottom of a small bowl, then the filling is piled up, topped with a coating of more dough which is sealed around the edges of the bowl. These typically undergo a steam bath at this point, which results in a jelly-like texture that is still firm enough to seal the filling tightly inside. A common variety is to cook or fry the dumplings in oil, resulting in a crunchy hand-held snack.
While ba-wan can satisfy the palette without it, a final gravy is often part of the package. It’s not the most complex of sauces, combining a portion of the filling sauce with miso, ketchup, and sugar. This is then thickened by adding water and flour. After the ba-wan hits the plate, this gravy is ladled. Before serving, many chefs will garnish the dish with herbs such as cilantro and parsley to boost freshness, acidity, and color.
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