Mystery Bao!

It's been a learning kinda week.  After getting into a scuffle with the scary harpies pushing Chinatown Bus tickets on the sidewalk, I was happy to settle in for the long ride and eat the steamed bun that I'd purchased on the corner.

A little background--my Chinese is terrible, but when appropo, I can and do generally order food in Cantonese, so's to avoid confusion as to what I want.  But since we'd been so freshly screwed by the transportation hawkers, I forgot to code-switch at the bakery. 

I'd asked for steamed pork buns in English: What I specifically wanted were steamed buns filled with barbecued pork (Char Siu Bao, the favorite of dim sum mavens). 

And like a dodo, I didn't realize that my request would translate poorly, as EVERYTHING is filled with friggen pork.

So when my man and I bit into the sizable buns, we were surprised to hit not sweet roasted pork, but chunks of chicken.  Puzzled, I took another bite and hit a whole hard-boiled quail egg.  By now, Mr. Man had taken a bite with a large steamed shittake mushroom, at which point it was simply too much for his shaken belief system, and he handed me his bun of disillusionment.

To be fair to the ladies in the bakery, the bun was in fact steamed, and did have minced pork in it.  And quail egg.  And preserved sausage (Lap Cheong).  And mushrooms.  And chicken.  Behold, the postmortem Bao-topsy:

I called my mum to ask her what the dealie-o was, and she said that what we'd encountered was called "Da Bao", or big bun, AKA Kitchen Sink Bao.  The intention with these sizable fellas was to carry an entire meal within a doughy, steamed exterior, essentially making them the Chinese equivalent of the Cornish Pasty.

And like the pasty, Da Bao was more of a provincial convenience food for laborers who couldn't make it home for lunch, and therefore not something you'd see a much of in urban dim sum, which tends to be daintier and more single-subject.

So there you have it.  Fellow city-slicker dim sum-mers, meet Da Bao, the Mystery Bao that keeps giving, and the Unofficial Hot Pocket of the Chinatown Bus.

(Word to the wise: If you are paying cash, do NOT purchase Chinatown Bus tickets until your tush is physically planted in the seat of the bus you know to be arriving at your desired time and destination.  Or avoid the whole kerfuffle and bring printouts of tickets purchased online.)

Comments

[From Behind]

You so robbed yourself. Char Siu Bao is the , thanks for id'ing, never knew the damn name.

[From Behind]

stupid TypePad. "Char Siu Bao is
-descriptive explosive device name-, thanks for id'ing, never knew the damn name."

[ashley lee]

the harpies pushing chinatown buses are definitely frightening... especially the ones wearing florescent vests.

and that bun looks amazing. 5 days until i'm back in LA and can get soup dumplings :)