Foodie Notes: Xiatang shaobing and the upside-down wok
If you are exploring Hefei in Anhui Province, here is a local favorite worth trying: Xiatang shaobing – a sesame flatbread baked in an upside-down iron wok.
In small roadside bakeries across the city, you can watch the process from start to finish. Bakers roll and shape the dough by hand, then press it directly onto the hot inner surface of an upside-down wok set into a clay oven.
Local lore says this unique method dates back to wartime, when soldiers turned their woks upside down to trap smoke and stay hidden from enemies.
Today, these small shops bake fresh flatbreads daily, serving both breakfast and lunch crowds. Pulled hot from the oven, Xiatang shaobing comes in both sweet and savory versions, with a crisp outer crust and a soft, flaky center.
Locals often pair it with a steaming bowl of mutton offal soup, though many also grab a dozen at a time to take home for breakfast.
Simple, warm, and woven into daily life, it's a quick and authentic taste of Hefei.
Would you go for sweet or savory?
RELATED STORIES
CHOOSE YOUR LANGUAGE
- Albanian Shqip
- Arabic العربية
- Belarusian Беларуская
- Bengali বাংলা
- Bulgarian Български
- Cambodian ខ្មែរ
- Croatian Hrvatski
- Czech Český
- English English
- Esperanto Esperanto
- Filipino Filipino
- French Français
- German Deutsch
- Greek Ελληνικά
- Hausa Hausa
- Hebrew עברית
- Hungarian Magyar
- Hindi हिन्दी
- Indonesian Bahasa Indonesia
- Italian Italiano
- Japanese 日本語
- Korean 한국어
- Lao ລາວ
- Malay Bahasa Melayu
- Mongolian Монгол
- Myanmar မြန်မာဘာသာ
- Nepali नेपाली
- Persian فارسی
- Polish Polski
- Portuguese Português
- Pashto پښتو
- Romanian Română
- Russian Русский
- Serbian Српски
- Sinhalese සිංහල
- Spanish Español
- Swahili Kiswahili
- Tamil தமிழ்
- Thai ไทย
- Turkish Türkçe
- Ukrainian Українська
- Urdu اردو
- Vietnamese Tiếng Việt
互联网新闻信息许可证10120180008
Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466