Photo Essay: Shanghai Pan-fried Buns

Sheng Jian Bao (生煎包), aka pan-fried buns, is an iconic Shanghai snack. The wrapper is made from yeast dough and usually the filling contains minced pork, spring onion and various seasonings. It’s quite small in size, similar to a golf ball or even smaller.

The name of the buns “Sheng Jian” comes from its method of cooking. The buns are lined up in an oiled, shallow, flat pan. Typical commercial pans are more than a metre in diameter. The buns are lined up in the pan with the "knot", where the dough is folded together, facing downwards and thus in direct contact with the oiled pan and fried into a crispy bottom during the cooking process. Water is sprayed on the buns during cooking to ensure the top (which is not in contact with the pan or the oil) is properly cooked.

After frying, the bottom of the bun becomes crunchy, and the gelatin melts into soup. This combination gives the Sheng Jian Bao its unique flavor. Because the buns are tightly lined up in the pan, they become somewhat cube-shaped after cooking. While waiting to be served, the chef may flip the buns so that the fried base faces upwards to prevent the crispy bottom from getting soggy in the process of cooling.

The traditional Sheng Jian Bao has pork fillings. Common variations include chicken, pork mixed with prawns, and pork mixed with crab meat.

In the hometown of pan-fried buns Shanghai, Sheng Jian Bao is traditionally served as breakfast at small local restaurants or just street stalls. They are often cooked in a large pan in front of the queueing customers.

In Hong Kong there are quite a number of well-known Sheng Jian Bao restaurants due partly to long relationship for migrants from Shanghai to Hong Kong since the 1930s. Cheung Hing Kee (祥興記) is one of my favorites. The store received the honour of a mention in the 2016 Michelin Guide, making it more famous in Hong Kong and beyond since then.

Now Cheung Hing Kee has several branches all over Hong Kong, including at least two shops in Central and Sheung Wan areas.

If you travel to Shanghai, the locally best-known Sheng Jian Bao shops are Da Hu Chun (大壺春), which literally means “a big pot of spring (flavor)”, and a relatively late-comer, Yang’s Dumplings (小楊生煎), which now even has shops outside China, like in Australia. Yang’s Dumplings are said to be backed by venture capital and may plan an IPO someday.

Dumpling (bun) is in fact already a billions-dollar business. Seriously!

A Wasted Weekend

Every Saturday morning when I wake up, I ask myself in my mind: How's my week been so far? What exactly did I do this week?

So, on Friday I've replied all remaining emails (at last) that have been waiting for me to reply so far this year. This week (as usual) I helped to restore some accounts and pages, which I know matter a lot to those who were previously affected. I'm also delighted we took down some unsafe content quickly for our users in Central Asia. My team fixed a draft plan (finally!) for a new project to launch. I hope I can share more good news soon.

My done list and to-do list can go on. I keep learning how to prioritize and how to take best use of my time, but I'm also reminded repeatedly sometimes some "small things" do matter too.

A reasonable sense of accomplishment can make me feel my life more complete and also help me to sleep better at night (well, I mean, usually after midnight). I also felt very accomplished whenever I can find a good bowl of ramen. After all, the taste of our good life is not only about work.

I don't usually waste time but I do like to "waste" my time on weekends. Someone once said: "A weekend wasted isn’t a wasted weekend."

Indeed.

Ramen Cubism

As the first #ramen restaurant outside of its native Osaka, the Hong Kong branch of Ramen Cubism is co-presented by Japan’s ramen personalities Hayashi Takao and Matsumura Takahiro.

Ramen Cubism, located in a very low-profile basement under an old office building in Central, presents five ramen varieties; one of which is limited to 200 servings a day, together with a handful of snacks on the side like my favourite fried chicken of course.

It first opened for business in early 2019 and has so far kept running well despite the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. During busy lunchtime on workdays, you may have to queue for 30 minutes to get a table.

Well, Hongkongers just like queuing for almost everything. Don’t we?

What does Public Policy do?

“During this period of immense change, this Public Policy role has never been more important. This role will seek to contribute to the debate on issues of high on the agenda of governments, regulators ...”

Just happened to know a big firm is hiring a public policy leader in Hong Kong. This is encouraging news — NOT because I have any intent to change my job but I’m pleased to see more and more corporates can understand the value of “public policy” work, which to be honest is not very easy to describe.

I still remember when I first got into my policy career and I went to a forum, a stranger looked at my business card and asked me: “Head of Policy? What do you do? Sell insurance?”

Given how fast and how dramatic the world has developed in recent years, I guess now more and more people do understand the importance of the policy profession.

I always consider public policy job as a de facto “ambassador” role, or like a “business diplomat”, to keep the world closer together, and to get more parties to understand each other. I do hope so.

Impact, Reflection, and Appreciation

January 4th this year marks the 5th anniversary (we call it "Faceversary") for me at Facebook.

It's been a really incredible journey: We've covered quite a number of key elections from Hong Kong, Taipei, and to Ulaanbaatar, several earthquakes and typhoons (unfortunately), social unrest and constitutional crisis, and not to mention the Covid-19 pandemic in the unprecedented year of 2020 for everyone. We also saved some lives in the real world, thanks to Facebook's suicide prevention tools and our fantastic safety partners on the ground.

For me it's a journey of impact, reflection, and appreciation. As we always say at Facebook, my journey is only 1% finished.

Thank you. Onwards.

Highlight photos:

• I helped to design our first-ever Asia Pacific Public Policy team T-shirt in 2018.

• Over two million people took to the streets to protest in Hong Kong in 2019. Beijing imposed the controversial National Security Law on Hong Kong in the following year.

• Represented Facebook for a closed-door hearing held by National Communications Commission about misinformation in Taiwan in 2017.

• Welcome Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to visit our new (and bigger) Facebook Taiwan Office in May 2019.

• Launched Facebook’s "Made by Taiwan, Loved by the World" campaign in 2017 to put more Taiwan brands on world map.

• Hosted Hong Kong's former Financial Secretary John Tsang to visit Facebook Hong Kong Office in 2017 as he ran for the Chief Executive election.

• US Ambassador to Mongolia Michael Klecheski visited the Facebook booth during the ICT Expo 2020 hosted by Communications and Information Tech Authority in Ulaanbaatar.

• A 2018 “international media tour” in Hong Kong, including a visit to CNN Asia Pacific News Centre.

• Facebook Taiwan Office received the “Presidential Medal of Appreciation” in November 2020 for our work on the Covid-19 pandemic in Taiwan.