Talk:Mantou

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[edit] Mantou = manju?

(But I have this impression that manju are more specifically mantou with bean paste filling...)

Mantou don't have any filling - they really are little rolls of steamed bread. What language is manju in? pfctdayelise 00:43, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
Nevermind. I just looked up "manju" in a Japanese/English dictionary. While the kanji is the same as "mantou", the definition is "steamed yeast bun with filling"
I agree. Do not merge. They are different things. Pissant 16:32, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I have removed the merge tag, they are clearly different foods. LDHan 13:02, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Filled vs. unfilled bao

A recent change said in southern China, mantou may also mean filled buns. Some details are needed to support that. I am from Hong Kong (happened to be in southern China), I have never heard such a usage. Mantou is always unfilled buns according to Hong Kong usage. Mantou is a Mandarin word adopted by the Cantonese verbatim. Conversely, Cantonese's usage of bao may be different from the northern usage. Cantonese bao can mean filled or unfilled buns. Kowloonese 01:55, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

In the Yangtze River region, especially in Wu, mantou means both filled and unfilled buns. Similarly, bao can also mean filled and unfilled. By contrast, the term "baozi" is an introduced term from Mandarin and retains its meaning of filled buns only.
Here's an example from an old book talking about the Xiaolongbao, a filled bun: "嘉定县续志: 馒头有紧酵松酵两种，紧酵以清水和面为之，皮薄馅多，南翔制者最著，他处多仿之，号为翔式" --Sumple (Talk) 11:23, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
In fact, according to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the first mantous, invented by Zhuge Liang, are filled with the meat of cows and horses ("[孔明]喚行廚宰殺牛馬；和麵為劑，塑成人頭，內以牛羊等肉代之，名曰「饅頭」。" (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, chapter 91). This is a legend, of course, but it proves that filled mantous do exist, and are probably more common than unfilled mantous in the past. I'm adding this fact to the article. Aran|heru|nar 09:43, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Filled 'mantou' are bao

It is rather difficult indeed to make 'mantou' shaped bao so I do not believe that the two are conflated anywhere. 'Mantou' type rolls that are rolled together with scallions and such are called hua juan. Stormheller 00:02, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Steamed bread

I got redirected here after typing in "steamed bread". I think that is wrong as there is or used to be other kinds of steamed bread, including an industrial process where steam is used to aerate the dough rather than yeast.

I'd like to make Mantou at home rather than eating ordinary bread that contains acrylamide which may be a carcinogen. There is no Chinese supermarket within reach of where I live. I was hoping that details of a recipe, or at least more of a description of how it is made, could be given please?

I don't believe Wikipedia is supposed to tell people how to make things, but I do agree,and am quite positive that, we should not have the term "steamed bread" redirect to "Mantou"; the terms are not synonymous. Repku 05:15, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Smaller buns?

my chinese friend once said that in China, they call the smaller steamed buns "siopao" and the normal-sized ones as "mantou." The only difference is the size. schlumpff 12:58 2 November 2006 (ET)

[edit] separate article

siopao should be separate article from mantou for cultural, etc. reasons--Guest818 16:31, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mantou and Baozi

These are two different things and should be kept separate.

The article is especially confusing at the paragraph which says "Mantou or mandou are also found in Japanese, Philippine, Hmong, and Vietnamese cuisines. It is called manju in Japanese and "siopao" in Tagalog(Filipino)." This paragraph should be scratched entirely as the Japanese manju and the Tagalog siopao are clearly not mantou; they are a kind of baozi.

Bathrobe 01:23, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm scratching the paragraph in question. Leaving it there is only going to lead to utter confusion.
Bathrobe 01:25, 19 June 2007 (UTC)