Dirty bread, or zang zang bao, is China’s latest food trend. These cream-filled pastries are covered in chocolate powder, which gets everywhere when you eat them. However, in spite of being sloppy, people line up down the street for this sweet pastry. Why? These sweet treats seem to be made for taking pictures and sharing on social media.
Shortly after their creation in Beijing, happy dirty bread customers started posting photos of themselves after eating these messy pastries. The trend caught on : buy some dirty bread, get chocolate all over your face and hands, and post the photo online. For young people that grew up with social media, it was a perfect match. They got to have a nice snack and then show everyone the results on the internet.
Another reason for their popularity is that many bakeries only produce limited numbers of the pastries, and they are only for sale at particular times of day. This means that they are even more special and popular, making the photos posted online even more interesting. Dirty bread is popular for being a yummy and rare status symbol. But will the trend last, or will something else soon come along? Only time will tell.
