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Mantou (first=t), often referred to as a Chinese steamed bun, is a white and soft type of steamed bread or bun popular in northern China. Folk etymology connects the name mantou to a tale about Zhuge Liang.
Traditionally, mantou, bing, and wheat were the staple of the northern Chinese diet, analogous to rice, which forms the mainstay of the southern Chinese diet. They are also known in the south but are often served as street food or in restaurants, rather than as a staple or home cooking. Restaurant mantou are often smaller and more delicate and can be further manipulated, for example, by deep frying and dipping in sweetened condensed milk. Colors or flavors may be added with other ingredients from brown sugar to food coloring in mantou making. For special occasions, mantou are sometimes kneaded into various shapes in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Shandong.
Precooked mantou are commonly sold in the frozen section of Asian supermarkets, ready for preparation by steaming or heating in the microwave oven.
A similar food, but with a savory or sweet filling inside, is baozi. (2025). 9780312288945, MacMillan. ISBN 9780312288945 Mantou is the older word, and in some regions—such as the Jiangnan region of China, and Korea— mantou (or the equivalent local pronunciation of the word) can describe both the filled and unfilled buns. In Japan, the equivalent local reading of the Chinese word ( manjū) refers only to filled buns.
The Mongols are thought to have taken the filled ( baozi) style of mantou to many countries of Central and East Asia about the beginning of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century. The name mantou is cognate to manty and mantı; these are filled dumplings in Turkish cuisine, (2025). 9780811866033, Chronicle Books. ISBN 9780811866033 Uzbek cuisine, (2025). 9781466963559, Trafford Publishing. ISBN 9781466963559 ( mantu) (2025). 9781741045420, Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781741045420 cuisines.
The legend was set in the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 CE) when Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of the state of Shu Han, led the Shu army on a campaign against Nanman forces in the southern lands of Shu, which correspond to roughly present-day Yunnan, China, and northern Myanmar.
After subduing the Nanman king Meng Huo, Zhuge Liang led the army back to Shu, but met a swift-flowing river which defied all attempts to cross it. A barbarian lord informed him that the river was raging due to the spirits of the enemies (bamboo army) he killed using fire previously. In olden days, the barbarians would sacrifice 50 men and throw their heads into the river to appease the river deity and allow them to cross. As Zhuge Liang did not want to cause any more of his men to lose their lives, he ordered his men to slaughter the livestock the army brought along, and fill their meat into buns shaped roughly like human heads (round with a flat base). The buns were then thrown into the river. After a successful crossing, he named the bun "barbarian's head" ( mántóu, 蠻頭, which evolved into the modern 饅頭). (2025). 9780557006199, Lulu.com. ISBN 9780557006199 Another version of the story relates back to Zhuge Liang's southern campaign when he instructed that his soldiers who had fallen sick from diarrhea and other illnesses in the swampy region be fed with steamed buns with meat or sweet fillings. (2025). 9781606932476, Strategic Book Publishing. ISBN 9781606932476
Northern Chinese mantou is denser and more substantial, while Southern Chinese mantou is lighter and fluffier, reflecting regional culinary preferences and local ingredients.
In many areas, however, mantou still retains its meaning of filled buns. In the Jiangnan region where Wu Chinese is spoken, it usually means both filled and unfilled buns. In Shanxi, where Jin Chinese is spoken, unfilled buns are often called momo (饃饃), which is simply the character for "steamed bun". The name momo spread to Tibet and Nepal and usually now refers to filled buns or dumplings. (2025). 9780306817397, Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306817397
The name mantou is cognate to manty and Manti; these are filled dumplings in Armenian cuisine, (2025). 9780811866033, Chronicle Books. ISBN 9780811866033 Persian cuisine, (2025). 9780471741725, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780471741725 Uzbek cuisine, (2025). 9781466963559, Trafford Publishing. ISBN 9781466963559 and Pakistani ( mantu, originated from Turko-Mongol immigrants) (2025). 9781741045420, Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781741045420 cuisines. In Japan, manjū (饅頭) usually indicates filled buns, which traditionally contain bean paste or minced meat-vegetable mixture (nikuman 肉まん "meat manjū"). Filled mantou are called siyopaw in Philippine, ultimately derived from Chinese shāobāo (). In Thailand they serve salapao (ซาลาเปา), a filled mantou. (1997). 9789742020279, Post Books. ISBN 9789742020279 In Korea, mandu () (2025). 9781624140594, Macmillan. ISBN 9781624140594 can refer to both baozi (飽子) or jiaozi (餃子). In Mongolian cuisine, the buuz and manty or mantu are steamed dumplings, a steamed variation is said to have led to the Korean mandu. (2025). 9781861893482, Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781861893482 In Singapore and Malaysia, chili crab is commonly served with a fried version of mantou. In Nauru and Papua New Guinea, mantou are known as mãju.
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