Mei Li Wah’s Pork Buns

With every trip into the city, I stop over to Bayard Street in Chinatown to pick up a dozen of these for my uncle. I normally don’t get any for myself, but with my sister back in town, I decided to indulge. They offer the pork buns, or the larger, special buns. I have no idea what is in the special ones… I’ll have to ask my uncle one of these days.

You can purchase the pork buns either baked or steamed. The special buns are only steamed. I don’t remember the individual prices, but I know that a dozen of the special is $19.20. A dozen of the pork is $9.60.

The pork buns were pretty good, and the filling was surprisingly more meat than fat. I’m fine with the bread to filling ratio, but I’ve had family members complain that they were too bready. And from what I hear it’s worse with the larger, special buns. But they store well, are easy to re-heat and eat on the go.

I remember my mom and aunts making these when I was younger. While they filled theirs with beef and pork, I made them with peanut butter and jelly. And wouldn’t you know, they were pretty tasty. I found a recipe for siopao in one of my mom’s cookbook and one of these days I’ll try it out. But for now, I’ll stick to these instead.