Are you familiar with Chinese bakeries? They're pretty rare outside of Chinatown. Chinese bakeries are awesome because they offer such a wide range of baked goods and pastries and it's also common to find some dim sum stuff there too. There are some old school bakeries that will mostly sell the basics (hot dog buns, roast pork buns, almond cookies, wife cake) while there are some fancy new ones that have included western pastries like eclairs and croissants. Wikipedia has a great list of baked goods that are common in Chinese bakeries while Serious Eats has a nice list that includes pictures. I had a thought last year. With all the people going crazy over cronuts and donuts and babkas and rugelachs and pies and cupcakes....where are all the excitement for Chinese pastries?! Do we need someone like Ansel to make it popular? Does it need to be updated? Re-invented? I have to say that the hot dog bun I had when I was a kid, taste the same as the one I had couple days ago. Maybe it is time to update it.

So here's a thought. What if I get all of you to just make something. I have put together a list of the most common pastries and baked goods I could find and included recipes from the internet to help y'all get started. I wasn't able to include ALL the pastries but you're welcome to make something else. It's up to you if you want to keep it traditional or make it your own. Keep it simple or go crazy. Let's make Chinese pastries popular, yeah?!

February 8th is Lunar New Year so I thought that would be a GREAT day for all of you to post (blog/tumblr/instagram) your results. And please tag your instagram post with #bakewithdonny

Hot Dog Bun GS3A4259-1 GS3A4281-1 Recipes: i am a food blog, The Woks of Life, Flavours of Asia (Video)