Just an old fashioned char siew bao
I first made bao's when I lived in California in the 80s. At the time, there were no decent bao's to be had in the desert town I lived in. My only option was to drive 2 hours to dim sum restaurants in Los Angeles.
The industry-packed bao's available in Chinese supermarkets were, in a word, disgusting. What passed for char siew bao filling was just this bit of sweet red goo.
I have big choice of bao's here, so I don't have any real push factor to make my own.
Except that the comfort food called char siew bao which I remembered from my childhood has been through some evolutionary process. The bao's have become too "refined", if you will. I crave the more "robust" version I remembered sinking my teeth into; the bao back then had more "character" in taste and texture.
So, one day recently, when I had leftover char siew, I made my own bao's.
There is something deeply satisfying about biting into an old fashioned unpretentious char siew bao and taste every nuance of char siew wrapped in a basic steamed bun.
3 comments:
yesteryears are golden years.
i love the chicken baos at .. bugis street? the juice just oozes down the hand when you take a bite. ok i was young then, ice cream also oozed down my hand.
It is hard to find good bao. In my vicinity, I only like the char siew bao from a particular shop in Toa Payoh. I hardly eat bao from anywhere else. I doubt it's the robust version you like though.
tuti - so good to be young :)
wildgoose - the shop at toa payoh might have the old fashioned bao's. it's the fluffy cottony skin that gets to me. i like something i can really bite into.
Post a Comment