Popiah () is a Fujianese/ Teochew-style fresh spring roll filled with an assortment of fresh, dried, and cooked ingredients, eaten during the

Qingming Festival The Qingming festival or Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English (sometimes also called Chinese Memorial Day or Ancestors' Day), is a traditional Chinese festival observed by the Han Chinese of mainland China, Hong Ko ...

and other celebratory occasions. ''The dish is'' made by the people and

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

of Fujian province of Mainland China (in

Quanzhou Quanzhou, postal map romanization, alternatively known as Chinchew, is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China. It is Fujian's largest metrop ...

, Xiamen, and Zhangzhou), neighbouring Chaoshan district, and by the Teochew and

Hoklo The Hoklo people or Hokkien people () are a Han Chinese (also Han Taiwanese) subgroup who speak Hokkien, a Southern Min language, or trace their ancestry to Southeastern Fujian, China and known by various endonyms or other related terms such a ...

in various regions throughout Southeast Asia and in Taiwan (due to the majority of Taiwanese being Hoklo), The origin of popiah dates back to the 17th century.

Etymology

In the

Chaoshan dialect Chaoshan or Teo-Swa (, Teochew dialect: ''Diê5suan3 uê7'', Shantou dialect: ''Dio5suan3 uê7'') is a Southern Min language spoken by the Teochew people of the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province, China, and by their diaspora around ...

and Hokkien language, ''popiah'' is pronounced as /poʔ˩piã˥˧/ (), which means "thin flatbread/cake". Depending an the regions in Fujian, it is also commonly referred to as /lun˩piã˥˧/ (), which is the etymological origin of " lumpia" in Indonesia and the Philippines. It is referred to as ''rùnbǐng'' () or ''báobǐng'' () in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

, and also as ''bópíjuǎn'' ().

Wrapper and fillings

A ''popiah'' "skin" () is a soft, thin paper-like crepe or pancake made from wheat flour. The method of producing the wrapper involves making an extremely wet and viscous dough. A ball of this dough is held to the right hand, then quickly "rubbed" (擦薄餅皮, Hokkien: chhat po̍h-piáⁿ phê, literally "to rub a popiah crepe") against a hot steel plate in a circular fashion, and lifted. Through this process, a very thin layer of the wet dough adheres to the plate and begins to cook. The upper surface of the crepe is then usually cleaned of excess pieces of dough using the dough ball through a dabbing process. ''Description'': A beginner learning the proper techniques and tricks of how to "rub" a popiah crepe. When the dough has been cooked to completion, it is peeled off from the hot steel plate before being removed. The rubbing is typically done over two or three plates at once, which allows the baker to continuously produce crepes and gives enough time for each crepe to be properly cooked. Popiah stall

It is eaten in accompaniment with a sweet sauce (often a bean sauce), a blended

soy sauce Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and '' Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''Asp ...

or hoisin sauce or a shrimp paste sauce (hae-ko, ), and optionally with hot chilli sauce before it is filled. The filling is mainly finely grated and steamed or stir-fried turnip, jicama (known locally as ''bangkuang''), which has been cooked with a combination of other ingredients such as bean sprouts,

French bean Green beans are young, unripe fruits of various cultivars of the common bean ('' Phaseolus vulgaris''), although immature or young pods of the runner bean (''Phaseolus coccineus''), yardlong bean ( ''Vigna unguiculata'' subsp. ''sesquipedalis ...

s, and lettuce leaves, depending on the individual vendor, along with grated

carrots The carrot (''Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', nativ ...

, slices of Chinese sausage, thinly sliced fried tofu, chopped peanuts or peanut powder, fried shallots, and shredded omelette. Other common variations of popiah include pork (lightly seasoned and stir-fried), shrimp or crab meat. Seaweed is often included in the Xiamen versions. Some hawkers in Malaysia and Singapore, especially in non- halal settings, will add fried pork lard. As a fresh spring roll, the ''popiah'' skin itself is not fried. Two common ways of eating this are holding them like a burrito, which some prefer, while others cut the popiah roll into slices and pick them up with chopsticks. It requires some skill to pick the pieces up with chopsticks. Spoons are seldom provided at the establishments.

Types

In mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia there are "''popiah'' parties" at home, where the ingredients are laid out and guests make their own ''popiah'' with proportions ingredients to their own personal liking.

Taiwanese

In Taiwan, ''popiah'' is called ''runbing'' () in Mandarin (''jūn-piánn(-kauh)'' in Taiwanese Hokkien). The stuffing itself is quite diverse among different places. The basic stuffing includes vegetables that grow in spring, meat and thinly shredded omelette. In some places, they also add noodles, Chinese sausages, stewed vegetables instead of blanched ones, tofu, seafood, sticky rice, and so on. Furthermore, the way of cooking the stuffing is very different as well. In northern Taiwan, the stuffing is flavoured, stir-fired, sometimes it goes with peanut powder, and the sauce is salty. In southern Taiwan, the popiah stuffing is water blanched without additional seasoning, and flavoured primarily with sugar and peanut powder. For people who live in southern Taiwan, the addition of sufficient sugar is key for popiah. Moreover, some people like to heat or steam the spring roll again after it is made. Some food stalls serve popiah filled with ice cream. This is a sweet and savory treat - the ice cream is commonly pineapple, peanut and taro flavored, or these three flavors swirled together. The vendor will have a giant block of peanut candy nearby. They will shave this in front of you to create a bed of peanut shavings on the popiah skin. Then the three scoops of ice cream are placed on the bed. It is customary to add a piece of cilantro before the whole thing is wrapped up and handed to you. Some people have dubbed it an ice-cream burrito.

Southeast Asia

In Malaysia and Singapore, ''popiah'' is part of Chinese cuisine of these two countries. However, in both countries, as well as in Brunei, ''popiah'' (especially the fried variant) is also popular as part of local street food. In Vietnam, ''bò bía'' is the Vietnamese variant of popiah, introduced by Teochew immigrants. It is common to see an old Teochew man or woman selling bò bía at their roadside stand. In Thai cuisine, two types of ''popia'' ( th, เปาะเปี๊ยะ) are popular: ''popia sot'' (fresh spring roll) and ''popia thot'' (deep-fried spring roll). In addition, Thai cuisine has also incorporated the Vietnamese ''

summer roll Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, with ...

'' under the name ''kuaitiao lui suan'' ( th, ก๋วยเตี๋ยวลุยสวน). While in Burma/

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, it is known as kawpyan (ကော်ပြန့်). Similar foods in other cuisines include the

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

'' Lumpia Basah'' and the Filipino ''

lumpiang sariwa ''Lumpia'' are various types of spring rolls commonly found in the Philippines and Indonesia. Lumpia are made of thin paper-like or crepe-like pastry skin called "lumpia wrapper" enveloping savory or sweet fillings. It is often served as an ap ...

'' spring rolls which are served with

peanut sauce Peanut sauce, satay sauce (saté sauce), ''bumbu kacang'', ''sambal kacang'', or ''pecel '' is an Indonesian sauce made from ground roasted or fried peanuts, widely used in Indonesian cuisine and many other dishes throughout the world. Peanut s ...

, etymologically derived from the Hokkien name Lum Pia. Majority of ethnic Chinese in both countries are of Hokkien origin. Image:YosriPopiaGoreng.jpg, Fried popiah being sold in Malaysia Image:YosriPopiaGoreng1.jpg, Hot and spicy fried popiah, popular in Malaysia. On the left side of the photo, the popiah is coated with heavy chili sauce. File:Bò bía.jpg, Sweet "Bò bía" sold at a street vendor in Hanoi, Vietnam

References

External links

Popiah RecipeYeo's Teochew Popiah Recipe
{{Thai cuisine Teochew cuisine Fujian cuisine Malaysian cuisine Singaporean cuisine Taiwanese cuisine Thai cuisine Burmese cuisine Stuffed dishes