What happens when you blend two popular dishes from the East and West? Baozza!

[Photo/VCG]

What happens when you blend two popular dishes from the East and West? Baozza!

Food has proven to be a popular – and delicious – way of bridging cultures. And one dish is trying to do just that.

It combines two wildly popular dishes in China and the United States.

But when it comes to diplomacy, there can be different kinds of approaches: high-level talks between leaders and people-to-people exchanges.

One approach takes place in a shop in Beijing. It’s where Chinese, American and Italian cultures blend. The ambassador is -- American Alex Cree.

Cree was on a business trip in the southeastern Chinese city of Guangdong, talking with his clients about the traditional Chinese steamed bun, the baozi.

“We were talking about the idea of maybe combining bao with more traditional American flavors like burger and different things and somebody said pizza baozi and I quipped, I just said as a joke, I said ‘bao-zza!’ and the more I thought about it the more I thought there might be something to this,” said Cree.

And there, “Baozza” was born.

Cree was so convinced that he quit his job and moved to China.