Teochew Char Siew Bao

I was busy all of last week and wasn't in any mood to come online much. Mum is having a makeover for her bedroom so I was going places with her, mainly to Ikea, and since she had the use of my uncle's car for a couple of weeks, we decided to do the stuff we planned for when such opportunities come knocking, such as visit far off places like IMM. ;P

We spent an entire Monday at Ikea Alexandra and mum had all her meals there from breakfast right up to dinner!! She was super excited about it and couldn't wait to clear out the three big wardrobes belonging to my grandma, which were mega old and rotting. She now has more space and spanking new furniture, and added to that, her pride and joy - a new HP desktop with a 20inch monitor! My guess is that she will be keeping even later nights now, playing with her pet and her cafe. ;)

On Wednesday, she decided to make a trip to IMM, yippee for me, Daiso here I come! She wanted to check out some furniture shops there for a new wardrobe.

As we weren't familiar with the road and timing of our journey from Jurong to the girl's school, we left IMM way too early and found ourselves to be half an hour early to pick the girl up. We decided to look for some snacks along the way and ended up at this market which has a famous stall selling Teochew style dim sum items. It was 2.45pm when we got there and the stall had actually closed for business, although everyone was still busy at work churning out food. The man directed me to a separate stall where a lady was shredding carrots. She said that they did not have freshly steamed items (as they closed at 2pm) but I was welcome to purchase them if I didn't mind that they were not hot. I didn't mind of course. She was pretty nice and very patient as I was checking out the stuff and couldn't decide on what to get. In the end, I bought char siew baos, tau sar baos and some siew mai. They also have a specialty which is kong bak bao. Those were really cute and mini. Everything here costs 50cents, except for stuff like big bao, lor mai kai etc. I kept them in the fridge (her advice was not to freeze them). I had these for breakfast the next morning.

The meat in the siew mai is different from the Cantonese version which we are so used to. It is very fine and soft, as if it had been ground 3 times over. There is also the addition of shredded carrots. However, I found it slightly salty and I much prefer the texture of the Cantonese ones where you can actually taste the meat and prawns. This version kind of melts in the mouth.

The char siew within is also finely shredded, and not in chunks or cubed like the Cantonese char siew. The skin of the bao is thinner and I found it too oily. I like the soft fluffy type.

If you are in the neighbourhood, do check them out for a different taste. You might like it more than I did.

Handmade Teochew Bao
Blk 127 Toa Payoh Lorong 1
#02-02
Singapore 311127
Tel : 62542053