嵊州小笼包Shengzhou Xiaolongbao

嵊州小笼包是浙江嵊州的传统小吃：用老面发酵的面皮，包上鲜肉或豆腐馅，捏出十几道褶，顶上留一个小口，上笼蒸熟。它个头小、皮松软、肉汁足，是嵊州人最家常的早点。

Shengzhou xiaolongbao (嵊州小笼包) are a traditional snack from Shengzhou, Zhejiang: small buns of dough raised with an old-dough starter, filled with pork or tofu, pinched into more than a dozen pleats, left open at the top and steamed. They are small, soft and juicy — the town’s everyday breakfast.

你也许早就吃过它。全国各地街头挂着“杭州小笼包”招牌的小店，很多就是嵊州人开的。

You may have eaten them already. Many of the little shops across China under a “Hangzhou xiaolongbao” (杭州小笼包) sign are run by people from Shengzhou.

故事要从 1985 年前后说起。据美食媒体“风味星球”在嵊州的采访，禹溪村的农民屠福元养蜂失败，欠下 2400 元的巨债，带着妻子去贵州铜仁谋生。在那里，一位从北方来的面点师傅教会他们做包子、卖早点。两年后，夫妻俩不但还清了债，还在村里盖起第一幢三层小楼。

The story begins around 1985. According to the food publication Flavor Planet (风味星球), which reported from Shengzhou, a farmer named Tu Fuyuan from Yuxi Village failed at beekeeping and fell 2,400 yuan into debt — a fortune at the time. He and his wife left to make a living in Tongren, Guizhou, where a pastry cook who had moved there from the north taught them to make buns and sell them for breakfast. Two years later the couple had paid off the debt and built the first three-storey house in their village.

村里人纷纷跟着学，屠福元也倾囊相授。整个九十年代，嵊州人带着这门手艺走向全国。据《中国日报》报道，第一家店的老板觉得嵊州的名气不如杭州，就在招牌上写了“杭州”，后来的同乡也纷纷照做。久而久之，“杭州小笼包”几乎成了嵊州小笼包的代名词。

Neighbors wanted to learn, and Tu taught them everything he knew. Through the 1990s, people from Shengzhou took the craft all over China. As China Daily tells it, the owner of the first shop thought Shengzhou was too little known, so he put Hangzhou on his sign — and the people from Shengzhou who followed did the same. Over time, “Hangzhou xiaolongbao” became almost another name for Shengzhou xiaolongbao.

在嵊州本地，反而看不到“杭州小笼包”这几个字。这几年，嵊州开始打自己的牌子：2024 年 11 月在北京发布了嵊州小笼包的品牌标识和团体标准，也在注册统一的商标。

In Shengzhou itself you won’t see the words “Hangzhou xiaolongbao.” In recent years the city has been building its own brand: in November 2024 it launched a Shengzhou xiaolongbao logo and industry standards in Beijing, and it is registering a single trademark.

很多人一听“小笼包”，想到的是上海南翔那种汤包。其实两者是两种做法。

Say “xiaolongbao” and most people picture the soup dumplings of Nanxiang, near Shanghai. The two are made in different ways.

南翔小笼用不发酵的“紧酵”面皮，馅里拌入肉皮熬成的皮冻，蒸熟后皮冻化成汤，讲究“先开窗，后喝汤”。嵊州小笼包的灵魂则是老面：家家留着自己的老面引子，面团慢慢发酵。据当地标准起草组的调查，各家作坊的发酵时间从 8 小时到 15 小时不等。蒸出来的皮，松软又有韧劲。

Nanxiang xiaolongbao use unleavened dough, and the filling is mixed with aspic made from pork skin, which melts into soup as they steam — hence the rule “open a little window, then sip the soup.” The soul of a Shengzhou xiaolongbao is its old-dough starter. Families keep their own, and the dough rises slowly: a survey by the team drafting the local standards found workshops fermenting it for anywhere from 8 to 15 hours. The steamed wrapper comes out soft yet springy.

嵊州小笼包顶上那个口，叫“鲤鱼口”。按照当地的标准，一只合格的小笼包净重 25 克，捏 18 道褶，顶上留一个约 1 厘米的口。蒸笼一揭，热气从口子里冒出来，咬下去暄软多汁。

The opening on top is called the “carp mouth” (鲤鱼口). Under the local standard, a proper bun weighs 25 grams, has 18 pleats and a carp mouth about a centimeter wide. Lift the steamer lid and the steam pours out through the openings; bite in, and the bun is soft and juicy.

比鲜肉小笼更有本地特色的，是豆腐小笼。馅以嫩豆腐为主，加少许肉末和蒜蓉辣椒，皮擀得像饺子皮一样薄。汤汁没有南翔小笼那么多，入口却格外滑嫩。

Even more local than the pork buns are tofu xiaolongbao (豆腐小笼). The filling is mostly silken tofu, with a little minced pork and garlicky chili, in a wrapper rolled as thin as a dumpling skin. There is less soup than in a Nanxiang dumpling, but the filling is wonderfully soft and smooth.

据“风味星球”的采访，豆腐小笼本世纪初在嵊州的黄泽镇兴起，后来传遍了嵊州。除了蒸，还有煎的：包子蒸到半熟，移到铁板上，浇上蛋液，煎到底部金黄，上软下脆。

Flavor Planet traces tofu buns to Huangze, a town in Shengzhou, where they took off in the early 2000s before spreading all over the city. Some are steamed and some pan-fried: half-steamed, moved to an iron griddle and finished with beaten egg until the bottoms turn golden — soft on top, crisp underneath.

嵊州人说“豆腐欺生”：离开了本地的水土，就做不出那样的豆腐。所以最好的豆腐小笼，还得在嵊州吃。

Locals say tofu doesn’t travel: away from Shengzhou’s water and soil, the tofu is never quite the same. So the best tofu buns are still the ones you eat in Shengzhou.

去嵊州吃早点，先认识几个词（据“风味星球”在当地的采访）：

Before you order breakfast in Shengzhou, a few words worth knowing (from Flavor Planet’s reporting in town):

据中国新闻网报道，截至 2023 年底，嵊州人在外开的小吃店有 2.8 万家，从业人员 7.3 万人，产值超过 110 亿元。到 2025 年，门店超过 3 万家，从业者超过 8 万人，产业规模约 140 亿元。

According to China News Service, by the end of 2023 people from Shengzhou ran 28,000 snack shops outside the city, with 73,000 people in the trade and output of more than 11 billion yuan. By 2025 there were more than 30,000 shops and over 80,000 people in the trade — an industry worth about 14 billion yuan.

嵊州本地有 50 多家企业主营速冻小笼包，年产值约 50 亿元。机器可以和面、称馅，但捏褶这道工序至今靠人手：老面的面皮韧性足，机器一捏容易粘连。

In Shengzhou itself, more than fifty companies focus on frozen xiaolongbao, together worth about 5 billion yuan a year. Machines can mix the dough and weigh the filling, but the pleats are still pinched by hand: the starter-raised dough is so elastic that it sticks in machines.

手艺也在一代代往外传。嵊州市农民培训学校已经教出上万名包子师傅，“一手托 18 只包子皮”是他们的看家本领。

The craft keeps spreading. The Shengzhou Farmers’ Training School has taught more than ten thousand bun makers, whose signature skill is holding eighteen wrappers in one hand.

2025 年 6 月 1 日，嵊州小笼包品牌“剡为面”在美国洛杉矶附近的帕萨迪纳开出第一家店，店名叫“NeZha dumpling”（哪吒面点）。同年 10 月，肯德基和嵊州品牌“嵊小笼”合作，在全国推出“K 记发面小笼包”。

On June 1, 2025, the Shengzhou xiaolongbao brand Shanweimian (剡为面) opened its first US shop, NeZha Dumpling, in Pasadena near Los Angeles. That October, KFC launched leavened xiaolongbao across China with the Shengzhou brand Sheng Xiaolong (嵊小笼).

2023 年，嵊州小笼制作技艺列入浙江省第六批省级非物质文化遗产代表性项目。同一年，嵊州老面小笼包在“味美浙江·百县千碗”名小吃挑战赛中，入选“十佳包子”。

In 2023 the craft of making Shengzhou xiaolongbao was added to Zhejiang’s sixth list of provincial intangible cultural heritage. The same year, Shengzhou’s starter-raised xiaolongbao was named one of the ten best buns in the province’s “Tasty Zhejiang” snack contest.

嵊州正在为这个行业制定一整套标准，从手工制作、速冻生产到门店经营，计划近 40 项。

Shengzhou is now drafting a full set of standards for the trade — nearly forty in all, from handmade buns and frozen production to how the shops are run.

在嵊州，小笼包是早点。包子铺清早就开门，很多下午两点前就打烊。点一笼鲜肉小包或豆腐小笼，趁热吃，醋和辣酱随意。想再来点汤水，可以试试嵊州的汤包。

In Shengzhou, xiaolongbao are breakfast. Bun shops open early, and many close by two in the afternoon. Order a basket of pork or tofu buns and eat them hot, with vinegar or chili sauce as you like. If you want something brothy on the side, try a bowl of Shengzhou tangbao.