Nanjing Food---Vegetarian Buns of Lvliuju

绿柳居的素菜包 


Vegetarian Bun of Lvliuju Restaurant is famously known as one of the best snacks of China. The husk, or called the skin of the delicacy is made from leavened refined wheat flour, and the stuffing contains tiny green vegetable which is a specialty in the south of Yangtze River, Chinese black mushrooms, bamboo shoots, dried bean curd pieces, sesames and needle mushrooms (金针菇). More vegetarian ingredients are to be added into the buns sometimes according to tastes.

A legend goes that when the last candidate attained first grade at the imperial examination in the Qing Dynasty and China's famous entrepreneur, Zhang Qian (张骞), was traveling in Nanjing, he accidentally found the preparation method of this vegetarian bun and told to the locally well-known Lvliuju Restaurant, and renamed it as Lvliuju Vegetarian Bun. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the great democratic revolutionist and founding father of modern China, had once tasted this delicious snack, and he favored it very much. Since then, Vegetarian Buns of Lvliuju have been widely popular in Nanjing.