Wotou or wowotou, also called Chinese cornbread, is a type of steamed bread made from cornmeal in Northern China.
Etymology
"Wotou" literally translates to "nest thing", since the wotou resembles a bird's nest with its hollow cone shape.
History
Wōtóu is in the shape of a hollow cone. It was a cheap food for poor people, but a legend grew on how it became a dish served in the Imperial Kitchens. The legend says that during Empress Dowager Cixi's flight to Xi'an from the Battle of Peking (1900) when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China in the Boxer Rebellion, Cixi received a bunch of corn buns to satiate her hunger. After her return to Beijing, she ordered the Imperial cooks to make it again for her, and the chef used more refined ingredients to create the golden colored wotou bun, which became one of the Imperial dishes.[1][2][3][4][5] The full name of the bun was 宮廷小窩頭 (gōngtíng xiǎo wōtóu - the "Royal Wotou").[6][7] It has been transformed into a popular food from its previous poor status.[8]
A cake called wowotou was cooked in the same pot as a cabbage after being "slapped on the side", and it was made out of corn-meal and served during the late Qing at Peking University.[9]
According to G. C. L. Howell in his article published in the China Journal of March 1934, The soy bean: A dietary revolution in China, wotou was made out of millet flour at a ratio of 8 to soy flour at 3 or 2 in north China.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]
Wotou steamed bread would be heavy without soda, so it was lightened by adding some sodium bicarbonate according to the Chinese Economic Journal and Bulletin.[17][18]
A "conical temple roof" is similar in appearance to the shape of the wotou.[19]
The Chinese Journal of Physiology described an experiment using mixed flour to make the hollow cone shaped wotou steamed bread, with it consisting of 2 parts millet, 2 parts red kaoliang, and 1 part soybean.[20][21]
It was known as wotou 窩頭, "maize-soybean flour bread."[22] It was also known as wowotou 窩窩頭, "bean-millet bread".[23][24][25][26][27]
^"Wotou - China Tour". Beijing 2008 BEIJING INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL WEBSITE. citw2008.com, Beijing International Travel Website. 2006. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^yuan_zcen (2008-10-28). "wotou". China Daily. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^Anderson, E. N. (1988). The Food of China (illustrated, reprint, revised ed.). Yale University Press. p. 118. ISBN0300047398. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^Horvath, Arthemy A. (1927). The Soybean as Human Food. Vol. 3 of National Government of the Republic of China, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Labor, The Bureau of Industrial & Commercial Information, Booklet Series. Chinese Government Bureau of Economic Information. p. 44. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^Horvath, Arthemy A. (1927). The Soybean as Human Food. Vol. 3 of National Government of the Republic of China, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Labor, The Bureau of Industrial & Commercial Information, Booklet Series. Chinese Government Bureau of Economic Information. p. 45. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^Chinese Medical Journal, Volume 56. Contributors Zhonghua yi xue hui (1914?-1949), Zhonghua yi xue hui (China : 1949- ). Chinese Medical Association. 1939. p. 103. Retrieved 24 April 2014.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^Zhongguo ke xue she (1922). Transactions, Volumes 1-7. Science Society of China. p. 26. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^The Philippine Journal of Science, Volumes 29-30. Contributors Philippines. National Science Development Board, Philippines. Bureau of Science, Philippines. Dept. of Agriculture and Commerce, Institute of Science (Philippines), National Institute of Science and Technology (Philippines). National Science Development Board. 1926. p. 291. Retrieved 24 April 2014.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^China Journal, Volume 20. China society of science and arts. 1934. p. 142. Retrieved 24 April 2014.