Ok, I've been together with my wife for the past nine years. We're both asian, specifically Chinese. My family speaks Mandarin and her family speaks Cantonese. Don't know if that's important or not.

Anyway, my wife and I are both ABC's. We don't normally eat a lot of chinese buns. However, on occassion when we are eating buns, she does the oddest thing. She peels the entire skin of the bun off before eating it. Not just the paper on the bottom of the bun. She peels the entire outer surface of the bun off. This act turns the tight, smooth outer layer of the bun into more of a fluffy texture.

I've never seen anyone do this before. No one in my family does it. I've never seen anyone do this in a restaurant during dim sum, etc... my first exposure to this behavior was watching my wife do it the first time we had steamed buns together. Apparently, she learned this from her family because I noticed that her entire family does the same thing. Whenever they are eating steamed buns they all peel off the outer layer before eating them.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone else besides her family do this. In fact, her older sister stopped doing this because she married into a family where they don't do this. I guess they thought she was some kind of a freak and that made her stop.

This isn't a big deal to me, I'm just really curious to see if any other asians peel the outer layer off of their steamed buns before eating them. If not, I know my wife is crazy and I can ridicule her every time she eats buns for the rest of her life.

 

Very weird indeed, all I peel off is the bottom paper. I didn't know you can peel off the outer layer of the bun. Does she peel of the skin of an apple? I know many Asian do this.

 

Always, always peel the skin of the buns first.

 

ok what is an ABC and what is a bun?

 

what is it?

 

ABC - American Born Chinese, basically a chinese person who was raised in a western environment.

Buns - Chinese steamed buns, the kind you would get at dim sum or in a chinese bakery. They usually have a filling. They are usually eaten during breakfast/brunch. The kind I'm discussing is your basic white steamed bun with a pork filling, very common.


Why peel the outside of the bun off? Is it for sanitary reasons?

 

And here I thought it had something to do with muff-diving or backdoor action....

 

Dude. I didn't start the thread.

 

...............i've actually seen people do this and not only buns, but fruits like apples and pears. i think it's just personal preference.

 

What paper?