Wei Jian cooks buns for the Nov 5 to 10 China International Import Expo in Shanghai, China. [Photo by Xing Yi / chinadaily.com.cn]

Cooking the best buns

Wei Jian, 27, fried bun chef

It takes only eight minutes to cook shengjian, Shanghai fried bun, in a shallow flat pan — line the buns in the oiled pan, heat it to create a crispy bottom, and then add water to cook the inside.

But it take hours to prepare — leaven the dough, roll it into small circular pieces, knead them, chop the pork for fillings and wrap the filling into the dough.

Wei Jian, 27, the chef of one of Shanghai's old brand shengjian restaurants Dahuchun, and his colleagues make more than 3,000 buns every day in the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai).

A dozen restaurants opened and started offering Shanghai specialties, such as shengjian and xiaolongbao (small steamed bun) in the center since Oct 15 for the China International Import Expo, and about 20,000 servings of different local snacks will be served daily during the expo.