Restaurant mantou are often smaller and more delicate and can be further manipulated, for example, by deep frying and dipping in sweetened condensed milk.

Precooked mantou are commonly sold in the frozen section of Asian supermarkets, ready for preparation by steaming or heating in the microwave oven.

[5] The Mongols are thought to have taken the filled (baozi) style of mantou to many countries of Central and East Asia about the beginning of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century.

The name mantou is cognate to manty and mantı; these are filled dumplings in Turkish,[6] Uzbek,[7][self-published source] (mantu)[8] cuisines.

A popular Chinese legend relates that the name mantou actually originated from the homophonous word 蠻頭 mántóu, which literally means "barbarian's head".

After subduing the Nanman king Meng Huo, Zhuge Liang led the army back to Shu, but met a swift-flowing river which defied all attempts to cross it.

After a successful crossing, he named the bun "barbarian's head" (mántóu, 蠻頭, which evolved into the modern 饅頭).

[9][self-published source] Another version of the story relates back to Zhuge Liang's southern campaign when he instructed that his soldiers who had fallen sick from diarrhea and other illnesses in the swampy region be fed with steamed buns with meat or sweet fillings.

[20] In Korea, mandu (Korean: 만두; Hanja: 饅頭)[21] can refer to both baozi (飽子) or jiaozi (餃子).