Putuoshan Guanyin Cake
A round, flaky pastry filled with sweet paste such as bean, sesame or seaweed, sold around the temples of Putuoshan island as a vegetarian snack and take-home gift.
How to eat it
Each cake is individually wrapped inside the box. Unwrap it over the packet, because the layered pastry sheds crumbs, and eat it in two or three bites; it is palm-sized and not heavy. The filling is fairly sweet, so it goes best with unsweetened tea, and pilgrims often eat one mid-morning between temple visits. Check the date if buying as a gift; the freshest are made on the island the same day. There is no ritual to it despite the name, and it is not an offering, just a snack named for the island's patron bodhisattva.
The story behind the dish
Putuoshan is one of the four sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism, dedicated to Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion, and its pilgrims have long needed vegetarian food they could carry between the island's temples. The cake named for her is a modern product of that need rather than an ancient temple recipe: bakeries around the piers began selling flaky vegetarian pastries with local fillings such as seaweed and sesame, and the name stuck. It is now the standard souvenir carried home from the island, and boxes are stacked at every ferry terminal in the Zhoushan archipelago.
For reference
Every kitchen does it its own way. What follows is the typical version — ingredients, heat and price shift from city to city and from one restaurant to the next, so take it as a guide rather than a fixed recipe.
If you have an allergy or something you can't eat, check with the staff before you order.