🍽️ Taro Dumpling

Taro-skin dumpling, local Shaxian.

The Taro Dumpling is a local flavor of Shaxian, Sanming, Fujian, its skin made from taro and cassava rather than flour. Steamed taro is mashed and kneaded with tapioca starch into a dough, wrapped around a filling of pork, bamboo shoot and shiitake, and pinched into horn-shaped dumplings. Cooked, the skin turns translucent grey-purple, chewy and silky with the sweet fragrance of taro, while the filling stays savory and juicy. It is mostly boiled, though also steamed or pan-fried; in soup it is especially slippery. A home and snack-shop specialty of Shaxian, it became a sought-after item as Shaxian snacks spread nationwide. Taro sweetness meets meat savor in a unique texture. Beyond the wonton, visitors to Shaxian often order these dumplings, whose substitution of mountain taro for flour best shows the food wisdom of Fujian's hills.