Week 20: Steamed Pork Buns

The first time I had steamed pork buns was in a very cool little food market in a really creative part of Berlin.

Our Segway tour guide (yep that’s a thing) had recommended we visit this cool little market so we hopped on the U-Bahn and zipped across town. It was totally different to the centre of Berlin with arty graffiti, posters stuck to walls and cafes with people lounging around and spilling out onto the street.

The market was like a miniature version of London’s Borough Market with rows of stalls selling all sorts of wonderful things. There were some beer barrel tables and picnic benches to sit on so we grabbed a beer, and a burger from Bao Kitchen and took a pew.

The burgers we had weren’t burgers as such, they were Taiwanese burgers, made from steam bun rolls and stuffed with pork. They were delicious. Having a steamed bun for the first time is quite an odd experience, the dough is soft and almost sticky, not crumbly like the rolls we’re used to. Different, but good different.

Since getting back from Berlin steamed buns seem to be everywhere. Sunday Brunch did a feature on them last weekend and it’s made me really want to try out Flesh & Buns (my belly is rumbling just thinking about it!).

When Ben spotted Olive’s Steamed Pork Buns challenge on their Facebook page last week he decided to take us back to Berlin. (Food-wise that is, not for real, darn it).

The recipe is here and although I didn’t help with the cooking at all (I know, I know, I need to get back in the kitchen otherwise this is just me blogging Ben’s food!), it seemed quite straightforward.

The pork belly was marinated in a pot of soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice wine, groundnut oil, garlic, honey and Chinese five spice, which gave it a nice spicy oriental flavour.

And the buns were amazeballs. So soft and airy to eat and really good stuffed with loads of meat, sliced spring onions and cucumber. It was just a shame we only had three each!