This article is the fourth in a series called “Festival of Flavors.” For six weeks, kids around the world shared the family recipes that most evoke their heritage. Visit this issue’s table of contents to read the other installments!

Mantou, a steamed bun, is one of the most common Chinese foods and one of my favorites. It is said to have originated during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD) in China.

The story says that the Shu Kingdom general Zhuge Liang was leading his troops back home, after defeating the warlord Meng Huo, when they came upon an extremely fast-flowing river. They couldn’t cross the river and so sought help from a local person whom they viewed as a barbarian.

The barbarian told Zhuge Liang that his people would have to sacrifice 49 men by throwing their heads into the river to calm it down. However, Zhuge Liang didn’t want to sacrifice his men, so he killed some livestock and wrapped flour around the meat. Then he steamed the buns so they looked like human heads and threw 49 of them into the river. After they crossed the river, Zhuge Liang named these buns mantou, which literally means “the barbarian’s head.”

Prior to the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), the word mantou meant both filled and unfilled buns.Then the term baozi (buns with meat or vegetable filling) was added, so now mantou means only unfilled buns made with flour. These buns, along with noodles, Chinese pancakes, and rice, are a staple carbohydrate of the Chinese diet.

Mantou is easy to make and very affordable. One yuan (about 15 cents) can get you three mantou, which is a day’s meal. It is made by using only a little flour and yeast. It’s soft and can be eaten with many side dishes, such as pickled vegetables, fermented bean curd, or fried eggs. It has such an amazing puffy texture that it begs you to use it to scoop up the last drop of the sauce on your plate. With the perfect balance of sweetness and chewiness, it can be eaten on the go. I think mantou is symbolic of China — it is eaten by all social classes, from construction workers to businessmen.

Mantou is a glorious food. Had it not been for my grandparents, I wouldn’t have been introduced to mantou at all. I was born in the United States, and my dad’s job was a two-hour drive away from home. After my mom’s maternity leave, she had to go to work, too. Because there was no one at home, my grandparents came from China to America and brought with them the skill of making mantou, a food that they painstakingly made every week in large batches.

From then on, our family’s breakfast was served with mantou and, for me, it is a comfort food of the highest order. Today it always reminds me of my grandparents kneading dough, the hustle and bustle of mornings, and sometimes cooking breakfast by myself. That’s why mantou, a plain bun, is so special to me. I hope that it will be special to you, too — in some way.