Banh Bao – Vietnamese dumpling, is a Chinese steamed bun dumpling cake, but we Vietnamese grow up and enjoy this dish very much. It is sold at Vietnamese market, Vietnamese fast food store, Chinese, Vietnamese restaurants, and virtually you can find it everywhere there is an Asian community.
Simply, it’s convenient: you can eat it for breakfast, for snack, and big enough to consider it a light lunch or dinner, at home, on the road, everywhere. This is probably the most popular Chinese dish that is loved by Vietnamese.
Banh bao (literbanh “enveloping cake”) is a ball-shaped bun containing pork or chicken meat, onions, eggs, mushrooms and vegetables, in Vietnamese cuisine. It often has Chinese sausage and a portion of a hard-boiled egg inside. Banh bao are generally smaller than baozi, and are filled with savory fillings, the most popular of which is seasoned ground pork. A vegetarian version of banh bao also exists.
The dish originated with the baozi from China but was adapted by the Vietnamese and is also available in most other countries with significant Vietnamese populations. As in China, pork is the most popular kind of meat in Vietnam.
Banh bao is an old fashioned Cantonese dim sum called tai pao brought to Vietnam by Cantonese immigrants.