• Originating from the Southern Fujian province, this snack is made with ingredients such as shredded meat, bean sprouts, parsley, grated carrots and shredded bamboo shoot, then wrapped in a thin crepe. These snacks are known as “润饼” in Southern Fujian province and Taiwan. 
• When “润饼” made its way to Singapore, some ingredients were likely changed as they were only available during certain seasons. Although the main ingredients still consisted of bean sprouts and carrots, dried shrimp, turnips, bean sprouts, tofu strips, and shredded omelette were also added. Some variations include spreading chilli or sweet sauce onto the crepe before adding chopped peanuts and rolling the ingredients in the crepe like a burrito.

20 years ago, Shen Wuping and Huang Wan migrated from Tong’an in Xiamen, Mainland China to Singapore, where they have used their hometown cuisine to help their kinsmen here in Singapore learn more about their hometown and trace their roots. During the recent Chinese New Year, they made authentic Tong’an popiah, which evoked their shared sense of kinship.

润饼 (Mainland China, Taiwan)

• The Malay term popia is also adopted from the term popiah.