ISO Chinese BBQ Pork Bun dim sum rec

[Ayrton]

Lulu? You and I have similar taste!

I used to work for a Chinese company in San Francisco and every morning we ordered these in for "coffee" break. (That was the life: on the edge of Chinatown and Little Italy, pork bao on one corner, and fresh panettone on the opposite one! But I digress ...)

You're talking about the steamed ones, right, very soft, pure white dough, tennis-ball size (ish)? The only ones I ever had had a very sweet pork filling, what I now would suspect is hoisin sauce and barbeque'd pork. They were unreal.

I have a couple of recipes for these at home that came from a very authentic source, although I've never tried making them myself so they're not T&T. Shall I try to remember to bring them in for you or have you found what you need?

[lulu]

Well, its good taste then Ayrton! And a word of advice as our tatse is so similar: be careful reading VeraBlue's recipes....I want to eat them ALL!

any way! Those are them, exactly how you describe. The sauce I am used to is sweet but not quite so deep as hoisin. I would be very pleased to see your recipes, but shame on you knowing how could these lillte guys are, having recipes and not making them, LOL!

I love dim sum of all sorts, but these are the KING of dim sum. I have to admit that when the husband and I were first in love we ate at dim sum joints every day for a fortnight ! The idea being that you can linger over lunch, et cheaply, as much or little as you like and it became seriously romantic. Maybe that is why I have such an especial weakness for these buns. The first time I tried tham was then....I had previosly avoided them thinking they didn't really appeal, but they are heavenly.

I don't much like red bean paste which I have also had in them, but was thinking that marron paste might be interesting to try too.

So, yes -Recipes please Ayrton!

[Ayrton]

You're right of course -- I've just forgotten about them. Must make them! (But boy ... would I kill for a good dim sum place here in Athens!) Any hints for where to go in London?

In San Francisco there used to be a locally-famous dim sum place down in the financial district. Ate there several times and loved it all, but just once ate with two friends from college, one Korean. She took over the ordering and the master stroke was crysanthemum tea -- as in, take the lid off the teapot and the whole flower was floating within. I remember it being absolute nectar, but have never had it since ...

(I make a pretty mean pot-sticker and moo shi pork (or duck, even better) ... as long as I'm looking up recipes do you want those too?)

Thanks for the tip on VeraBlue ... I'll check her out!

[lulu]

Of course...the best place to go in London IS The New World. Leicester Square tube, its the only restaurant on Gerard place, which leads out on to Shaftsbury Ave. From Shaftsbury its on the corner where the fire station is...the little road that runs down to Soho's NCP carpark.

Trolley dim sum on three floors from 11 am til 5 or 6pm. Their may be a little queue, but its well worth it. Four generations of my husband's family and three of mine have been going there, and it really is excellent. The best dim sum in UK. Possibly the world, lol! (Certainly, when coming from NY my in laws go straight to New World from the airport, lol!)

Try the water chestnut gelatine squares too...very good....but not the yam ones, I think they taste like BO smells, lol!

[riverli]

lulu i find some recipe in google ,you may do stick to it .but i think what you want is an pork ones. yes ,there are many kinds of bao zi, remember ,the chinese name is bao zi.but i like the pork one. of course you can get the other kind ones.

i will ask for the seller what their filling recipes .i think i know what are you want,you can just see the step of the recipe i send to you in private mail......the step is the same. the filling recipe , maybe some difficult to you and me.because the filling i made in home are not good as the sellers. lol.

[lulu]

Thank you for the PM! I am very grateful. I will experiment with the filling, but you are right the pork is the best!

[riverli]

to do this dim sum is a quite back-breaking work.you must have much time.
so i think you can only do it quite few time for good friends. to buy in chinese supermarket is a better way.lol,just like me

[riverli]

you can change the mushroom to mincing pork,just experiment.my father do the filling with mincing pork,mincing tomato,mincing celery and other ondinary spicy. the taste is good too. you can experiment .

we eat them just touch some vinegar .the taste is better .i recommend to you .

[Ardor]

Steamed buns/chausiubao/mantou

[AnnieKyung]

I have been introduced to steamed fluffy buns from vietnamese, called banh bao. I think it is very simulare to the chinese baozi. Both in china and in vietnam these buns are pure white. I have tried to make the buns with regular flour from the nearby store, but then my buns turns greyyellowish. I bought some specialflour for chinese steamed buns, in the etnc foodstore in town, and then my buns came out perfectly white.
My cuestion is; is it possible to get purewhite buns wiht recular flour? I make alot of food, and it is inconvenient having to go to the city to by special flour all the time