Steamed Buns, Niseko

Chinese steamed buns , we love em and now we have a great local place to go for a fix.

Just 5 minutes down the road is the Niseko view plaza, the plaza is a great place where local farmers bring in their seasonally grown  produce and are given  a couple of shelves in a big communal shop to sell what they have.



It's like a permanent growers market, you don't know what's going to be there when you go. Kat and I went every few days during the last days of autumn picking up fruit and veg to preserve for winter

Just outside the market is a few food vendors; milk Kobo ice cream, eff eff charcuterie and Niseko beer, a fried potato stall and the bun lady.

She does three types of bun all with a Japanese twist rather than the traditional Chinese BBQ filling.  The first we try is a large bun filled with niku jaga, this is a usually a homely Japanese pork stew but translates nicely as a bun filling.

Having tried one and being rewarded for our curiosity with deliciousness we quickly went back and ordered one of every thing else.

The next was another large bun with a dark soy, mushroom and water chestnut filling, rich and savoury and again delicious.

The last is two smaller buns with gyoza filling of pork and garlic chive and served with a little black vinegar.  Two bites and they're quickly gone after which we know we'll be back for more.

And so we have dragging M1 along so we can talk to the vendor.

She hand makes the buns every day in Anupuri and brings them to the plaza each morning. She's very busy during summer but a little quiet during the snow season which has been good for us as we have been able to get her to make small cocktail size buns (too cute) for a few of the canape functions we've had over the season, this works out great as we can get our fix delivered.......sweet.

Steamed buns

Third stall

Niseko View Plaza

Toys and Treats, Hanoi

We have our friends at Cafe Hue to thank for directions to this little gem. Down on toy street in the old city in between all the piled up stuffed animals and lego mountains (sounds like the beginning to a fairy tale) ..



there are several women attending large steamers, not so large that you would notice them if your attention was directed at the plethora of toys and games, you might just wander past as we did the first time.



It wasn't until we were looking for them that they became apparent (hiding in plain sight as they were), so over we go and old hands at the 'point and smile' technique we are soon the proud owners of two large fluffy steamed buns.



Usually seen filled with BBQ pork when we go yum cha-ing, these were a little larger and filled with a deliciously savoury mix of pork mince and mushroom, then tucked away in the center a quails egg. Such a great combination and so good that you burn your mouth several times unable to wait the crucial seconds for the hot center to cool to a reasonable temperature.

A very frustrating theme is beginning to emerge since we've be here in Hanoi, in that all the food we have eaten is so good it makes going somewhere else to try new thing increasingly difficult.

It's a hard life really.

Steamed Pork Buns
Hang Dao, Old City
Hanoi, Vietnam

Taiwan Food Street, Singapore

How's our luck? We arrive in Singapore in July and the Singapore Food Festival is going on all around us.... our second morning we head to Bugis Junction, with intentions of continuing on to Chinatown to find Kaya Toast. We stumble across a vast array of stalls just starting to set up and notice all the signs: "Taiwan Food Street - 21st-27th July". So, there goes the whole morning wandering around grazing on Taiwanese delicacies .....

First stop, Smoked Duck Crepes with Peking Sauce. The plump slices of duck breast, still pink are so smokey with a nice lick of sweet peking sauce. There is a chilled baton of cucumber and it's all wrapped in a paper thin crepe, a welcome change from the regular pancake, with a little more texture and a nice salty flavour. Yum Yum! A box of 6 almost wasn't enough .... but there was so much more to try!

Next we spot a lady making Chee Choeng Fun. These little rice noodle parcels are a staple favorite at yum-cha, usually filled with roast pork or prawn.

What has us fascinated was how she was making them .... First a ladle full of the rice mixture is placed onto an oiled, flat baking like tray

then a little chopped roast pork and shredded lettuce are added. This tray then slides into a massive steamer and cooked for about 2-3 minutes, which almost seems like an eternity as we have been here drooling and watching her make a few already.

The noodle sheet is then cut in half, and with a giant plastic scraper, she then carefully folds the noodle down over itself and you're left with 2 giant rolls of squidgy rice noodle parcels filled with the roast pork.

It's then cut into little bite sized pieces, topped with a splash of soy and a thick, nutty brown sauce and toasted sesame seeds. Divine!

Then for our first steamed bun ... a little taco-like-envelope of snow white bun dough grabbed a sticky caramel piece of braised pork belly and a leaf of crunchy iceberg. These little sandwich like buns are just too good!

The pork belly just came apart in shreds with each bite, like it had been braised in the rich caramel for hours..

Steamed bun number 2 was a chili chicken and crab. There were plump little chicken patties sitting in a chili and crab sauce, which was nice and spicy with the lumps of crab a nice sweet explosion. This again in the envelope like bun, with a leaf of crunchy iceberg. Mmmm

Then there was a little Frank shop that was churning out all sort of funny sausage .... but there were loads of people ordering the chicken and spring onion cake. This was to finish off our adventure down Taiwan Food Street. Little dumpling like parcels filled with spring onion, garlic chive & chicken mince, pan-fried for a golden exterior and steaming hot centre.

They were so plump and juicy and rather hot!, so we let them cool a little ... then we noticed everyone was squirting loads of chili sauce and mayonnaise over them, so we joined in! A little unusual but extremely tasty none-the-less. A great way to spend the morning....

Taiwan Food Street was part of Singapore Food Festival 2008

Held July 21st-27th

Hylam St wing, Bugis Junction