狗不理包子

Hal read my entry and asked the origin of 狗不理 that has been selling since 1858, originally started in 天津(TianJin). Yes, in this city, it is history everywhere.

I told him the story I knew of, that this vendor's first version was so bad that customers threw them to ground and dogs would walked away. He was so humiliated by the failure; he swore to reclaim his reputation. At last, like so many Chinese folklores, the hundredth version was so good they wanted to name the style after him. Remembering the 1st humiliation that led to this success, he branded the new style of BaoZi.

It turned out there is a less inspiring, but probably more realistic story. It is also authentically described on the wall of the 大閘欄(DaZhaLan: a retail alley in QianMen) branch.

This man named his new son 狗子(GouZi: Doggie). (Many Chinese believe that if you name your prized son or daughter as an animal, they will gain the resiliency as such. The ghosts and spirits will also think you simply got a new pet and won't bother to try to claim him away.)

Doggie grew up to quite a chef specializing in making BaoZi. They were so good; he couldn'â„¢t meet the demand from the customers. Frequently, he focused 100% on making them and ignored the customers who try to buy those prized BaoZi. As people got used to his style, they called those "Doggie won't pay attention to you&quot BaoZi.

This entry was posted in Tour guides. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to 狗不理包子

  1. Pingback: Loud Thoughts » Blog Archive » 新版狗不理

  2. Pingback: 新版狗不理 | sun

  3. Pingback: GouBuLi, a new version | sun

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.