Big pau, small pau

Maybe I've been eating too little this week because of my cold, I suddenly developed a craving for pau. The thought of sinking my teeth into a fluffly white pau filled with chunks of juicy savoury meat made me rush to ....... got you there! Bet you thought I was going to rush to the nearest pau store right? Noooo, not after I've checked my favourite food blog for the yummiest pau in Singapore! I share the blogger Leslie Tay's mantra "Never waste your calories on yucky food."

According to him, Tanjong Rhu Pao rules! He has a nice photo of a big pau that set me drooling. It was surprisingly quiet when I got there yesterday evening. It's hard to imagine people traveling all the way to Kampong Arang for their pau fix. I had to rely on my street directory to get there.

The paus are indeed smaller than the ones sold elsewhere and more expensive. I bought a mix of big pau, char siew pau and ying yang pau. The small bag of goodies cost me $20!I gave some away to my brother and CH and steamed the rest for breakfast this morning.

The ying yang pau is generously filled with an unusual combination of red bean paste, lotus paste and salted egg. The smooth and sweet paste is nicely balanced out by the salty egg yolk. Why does it remind me of a mushy mooncake I wonder?

For those of you who have not seen a pau before, this is what it looks like on the outside. It's like our Asian burger. The dough is soft, slightly sweet and when you break open, you can find meat, vegetable or sweet fillings. They are sold steaming hot and are eaten as a snack or breakfast food. We have the coffee shop variety and specialty pau stores like Tanjong Rhu Pau or Teck Kee Pau.

I like my meat pau fillings chunky with enough bite, and this pau has enough chunk factor to satisfy my craving. The meat is well seasoned, succulent and tender. It even has some juicy drippings when I bite into it. I can only complain about the size. It's too small, I finished it in 2 bites.

If the big pau is small, then the char siew pau is minuscule! But the delicious pieces of smoky, sweet bbq meat makes up for its lack in size. The filling's probably one of the best I have eaten.

When Rusty smells meat paus being steamed, he comes running into the kitchen. How not to succumb to his earnest begging?

Of course I shared my tiny paus with him. Now he looks as satisfied as I am. These paus are so nice, I have to buy more next time!