This goes back a very long way to the time when somebody commented somewhere that she liked Ah Pui’s pao (steamed buns) the most. I asked her where I could get them and she said Lanang Road. I replied that it was a very long road so she would have to tell me exactly where but she never replied. Sighhhhh!!!
I have seen a lot of people posting photos of nice food on Facebook but they never mention where and when somebody asks, they would give the name of the place and when they ask where that is, they would give the location but I can never imagine how anyone can ever find the place when the directions are, more often than not, so vague or at times, even misleading. They might as well not bother sharing the photos at all – honestly, I cannot see why they do that!
It so happened that I saw a coffee shop with more or less that same name and I did go to check it out but, no, that wasn’t it! Well, finally, at long last, an ex-student said that he liked Ah Pui’s pao, the vegetable one especially and when I asked, the direction/location he gave was pretty clear and when I went to Google Maps to look and see, I managed to find it…
For one thing, there was no Ah Pui (Fatty) there, except for the guy in the logo, just a lady selling the paos in the steamer…
…and it is a few metres from a roundabout so anyone driving past would have his or her eyes on the oncoming traffic from the right and will not be looking left to where the shop is.
It sure looked like they had a very large order…
…that morning and they had packed everything in a big box, awaiting collection or delivery.
The filling of the vegetable pao (70 sen each)…
…is similar to the ones the old lady at the market sells and is even nicer, I must say. It seems fresher or not so overcooked. However, I did not like the skin. It was so white, probably one of those bleached flour specially for paos that I’ve seen in the shops and supermarkets, and it is so fine and dense, obviously over-beaten by machine, nothing like the pao skin of those in the good old days.
The char siew pao (RM2.10)…
…was not as nice as the ones here, as far as the filling goes and of course, the skin was not to my liking either and as for the filling in the bak pao (also RM2.10), the minced meat is pressed into a lump, something like a meat ball, just that it is not round…
I did not get my hopes up too high but when I bit into it…
…I found that it was really very nice, tasted a bit like luncheon meat and there was a bit of an egg, hard-boiled, in it though barely noticeable. Too bad about the skin, otherwise I sure would not mind coming back here to buy this particular one again and maybe the vegetable pao as well.
In the meantime, I went and bought these (RM2.00 each)…
…at the shop near my house. They have been selling these homemade paos for as long as I can remember but I never felt inclined to buy as I did buy some from the shop at the end of that same block and they did not get me all excited.
I was pleasantly delighted to find that the skin…
…was almost like what I had been looking for, not quite old school but pretty close. You can see that it is not so dense, more airy and cushiony and very much more to my liking.
The filling…
…is very nice too and there is a chunk of egg inside.
All in all, I must say that I was kind of disappointed with Ah Pui’s – after looking for it for so so long, it turned out that it may be the favourite of a lot of people but no, it isn’t mine! I would prefer the latter a whole lot more and it’s cheaper too!
KUNG FUNG FOOD INDUSTRIES (2.279053, 111.837881) is located along Jalan Lanang in the last block of shops on your left a few metres from the roundabout at the junction of that road and Jalan Aman and SWEE HUNG (2.316161, 111.840441) is located along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – next to a hair salon at the extreme end…and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket. Kim Tak Co. and Ah Kau Cafe are located in the other block on the left.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I prefer char siu paos to bak paos anytime and yes, the skin must be light and airy not dense and chewy.
If char siew, I like it the Hong Kong dim sum pao way, not in our old school pao, we did not have it like that in the past.
We also have steamed buns in Polish cuisine. Only they are rounder, resemble rolls and do not have stuffing inside. We eat them with sauce.
Oh? Nothing inside? We have what is called “mantao” here which is actually the skin of these steamed buns, no filling. Usually, we just eat it like plain bread with butter and whatever else or we stuff it with stewed meat.
Haven’t seen you around for a while. Hope all is good at your end.
the hunt for the best bao continues – i guess it’s getting harder to find great classic ones in this 21st century!
Yes, a lot with skin with texture like the Hong Kong dim sum pao…and they do not do it well. Mushy and sticks to the teeth.
I too remember the days when pau was less than RM1
Oh? You are that old? LOL!!! The good ol’ days – everything was so cheap then!
It is unfair to give us a craving right and then not let us satiate it! 😉
Yes, I really do not know why they do that – post a photo of something nice and never mentioning where one can get to enjoy it. I may do that…and tell everyone to wait for my blogpost – otherwise, I will not get much traffic by the time the scheduled post appears in my blog.
Along the lanang road, there’s another shop near the kawan hotel, which only opens from evening.
Oh? I don’t go out at night – it’s either church or dinner some place and home. Will look out for it when I am in those parts of town.