If you consider yourself a bit of a foodie, odds are you've run across the explosion of bao buns in recent years. But what is it and why is it so fluffy?

Makes 8 sandwich-style steamed buns. Cathy Erway, author of 2015’s “The Food of Taiwan” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30), writes that this dish, called gua bao, is the classic Taiwanese version.

Bun’d Up serves its bao at area farmers’ markets. The homemade buns come in regular and whole wheat with fillings like Korean BBQ, braised pork belly, and marinated tofu. One distinguishing feature is ...

BAO BUNS. Prep: 15 minutes active, plus 75 minutes rising time. Cook: 10 minutes. Makes: 8 large buns. A basic yeast bun recipe from Andrea Nguyen's "The Banh Mi Handbook," published in 2014.

If you've ever ordered Peking duck at a Chinese restaurant, you know the pleasures of a good bao, the steamed bun into which you pile a helping of the meat, eat and repeat.