We visited a local Hainanese coffee shop called Hai Yew Heng in Tanjung Sepat that is famous for its steamed pau, or in English, steamed bun. Hainanese are Chinese people who originated from the island of Hainan in China. In Malaysia, they are usually involved in F&B trade, e.g. coffee shop or restaurant.
We had to call the coffee shop ahead of our arrival to order our paus. Most of my friends ordered by dozens. As I only plan to have them for tea time, I decided not to place an order ahead. We arrived at the coffee shop at 3pm. However, the whole coffee shop was filled up with a busload of tourists. We checked with the kitchen if the pre-ordered paus are ready but was told to return at 5pm. No pau was available for those of us who didn't order ahead!!! Arrgggh!! That meant no pau for me! Fortunately my kind friends offered me some.
The paus came with various fillings. For sweet fillings, customers have a choice between kaya (a sweet fragrant cream made of eggs and coconut milk), peanuts or green beans. For savoury fillings, there are pork, sengkuang (yambean, in English) and pork with preserved mui choi vegie.
I once heard a dim sum expert said that a good pau skin is supposed to be soft and fluffy, not chewy where it would get stuck in ones teeth. The steamed paus of Hai Yew Heng certainly have those qualities! And their mui choi pork & kaya steamed buns are fabulous!! I will certainly go back there again for more of these paus!!!
10 comments:
These look incredible. Can you please mail some to me here in Belgrade? :)
Hey thanks for sharing this! Now I know the history of Pau ... although we call that one here Siopao! Yummy you made me crave for one.
My P post is here.
Very interesting andgood to see apost that is so specific to your area.
Wonderfully educational as I have never heard of Pau before. They look and sound delicious
Nice pictures of the making. Will definitely check this store out when next in town.
Those are yummy. In my culture, we call it siopao (sho-pow). I've also know it as steamed buns.
Your lotus picture is lovely.
Very interesting post, thank you for sharing!!
They look delicious.
Do they serve low-cal paus for those of us on a diet?
Bear((( )))
These are so DELICIOUS! I have them every time I go to the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Beautiful photos,too.
Wow .. you have to order ahead? They MUST be good!!
They sound very interesting. I don't think we have anything like it in England.
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