Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Taiwanese Steamed Buns @ Mr. Baoz, Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur

onion chicken baoz that tasted mediocre

Prepare to be pau-ed out, with this post. Last week, I was at Pavilion doing a quick spot of shopping. Seems like ages since I stepped into the place as there was so many new dining places. What did I spy with my little eye? Let's see - I saw an Italian restaurant on the 6th floor serving non-halal food (hmmm, what is it with these porky places that crop up everywhere?), Bosphorous the Turkish place has expanded their outlet to outside (looks like they were serving cakes and I think I spied a Turkish wooden ice cream tubs), Etoile has dissapeared from the level where they hold all those shows and events and been replaced with Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and I think I spotted Dome from a far away. There are also a couple of new places on the Food Court level, including this Mr. Baoz, right next to Bengawan.

stinky flyaway bonito flakes dust this squid roll

Read about its existence from KampungboyCitygal, hence I decided, it will make a nice take-away dinner. Seems they are super popular in Taiwan - as they proclaimed they have sold millions of baoz in Taiwan! The steamed buns come in boxes of 3, 6 or 12 pieces. I choose the 6 piece box - the Diamond one, which had a mix of savoury and sweet steamed buns.

curry mutton baoz was okay only

When I got home, I was too hungry to heat them up, so I ate them lukewarm with Splashie Boy. Some bits were stuck to the box, hence the slightly "deformed" look of the buns after a quick session of picture-taking.

curry chicken baoz was a little unusual since it was deep-fried versus steamed

I guess I kinda anticipated more, but after tasting each bun, Splashie Boy and I reckoned they were just average. In fact, after a while, it took me some time to try and distinguish each different flavour. Not a very good indication of how it is, only the squid roll stood out for me (as it had these pesky bonito flakes that fell on my black top, after I bit into it) and the deep-fried curry chicken bao as it was salty and crispy.

crispy fruit and butter baoz had a pretty generous butter filling

One thing that amazed me was the cats was paying tremendous attention to the buns, something they don't usually do with food. I reckon it was the smelly bonito flakes calling their name. Kits even decided to sniff one out but don't worry, he didn't get to eat it, or else I envision I will have to drive him to that super expensive animal hospital on Jalan Tun Razak for immediate treatment.

Kits was asking if this is nice or not? He must have good taste, as I liked this one the best out of the lot - Snowflake Sesame Baoz

I thought the sweet ones were not too bad with generous fillings. I quite liked the one that Kits sniffed out - the Snowflake Sesame Baoz with the dessicated coconut fillings. Guess it would taste even better if I had stopped to reheat them.


To be honest, these steamed buns just didn't impress me much. Give me an old-fashioned char siu bao or even a lotus paste filled pau instead, as these new fangled buns just don't seem to rock my tastebuds at all.

Mr.Baoz
Level 1, Pavilion
Jalan Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur

Pork free. Outlet is next to Bangsawan and Food Republic. For further details, check their website, http://www.mrbaoz.com.my/ out. Kinda confusing with the local Baoz.


*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.


Tagged with:

14 comments:

Penang Tua Pui said...

wow... BAOZ.. look so delicious... hope to get a bite on them...

really make me hungry,.....

hope to have one at Penang... :P

hi, I am Huat Koay from PenangTuaPui...

J2Kfm said...

yeah, read bout this from Citygal as well. and the unusual fillings and combination is a welcome change, I'd thought.

stinky bonito flakes? hehe ... and I was re-reading the sentence as I tot the pau was so weirdly-named.

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

they obviously havent heard of "back to basics"..

Unknown said...

yeap agree that while it tasted just like any ordinary baos..the little stall is unusually quiet as opposed to my thought that it will attract a long line too..but it does make a good gift as my parents are extremely happy to receive it..

Julian Si said...

Love the Kits and Baoz shot :-)

Bangsar-bAbE said...

I much rather have a plain old lotus or tau sar pau. Oohh...and the huge meat pau too! :D

choi yen said...

I think I'll go to try myself at least once, hehe :) I like new food :)

jasmine said...

i didn't like them much either. and i tried them in taipei!

Christina Kim said...

That was really PAU-ing...hehehe:)
There's lots of baos....somehow I never gave them much thought or even into the idea of trying them but I am still impressed by the variety of bao they came up with too:)

Rarebeet said...

Hmmmm guess will give this place a miss. I wonder if there will ever come a day when us Malaysians will say "enough with the white carbs! Give us bread with real flavour!" Yea right...

boo_licious said...

penang tua pui - stick to old fashioned buns instead, this one not so nice.

j2kfm - yeah, but somehow the flavours just don't stand out on its own. Quite sad, since so much hype abt this place!

joe - LOL! Guess they were being adventurous but failed.

kampungboycitygal - I guess people have tried and came to the same conclusion?

Julian - I like that one too! He is such a sweetie that I was so surprised he wanted to sniff out food vs his smelly canned tuna.

bangsar-babe - hi-5 too!

mimi - maybe you will like it. It just didn't click for me.

jasmine - ah, it is not only me.

christy - I reckon, they have a huge R&D team to come up with the varieties.

paprika - shock, horrors! That is not bread - the hard, grainy and full of good stuff thing, the M'sians will protest. Give us soft fluffy bread instead!

CRIZ LAI said...

You know... I think they are trying to impress the donut crowds with their varieties of sweets and savouries. Bao just won't do! I can't imagine taking one cold one without the sponginess. Even if you heat them up, the topping would be dissolved. It's just the wrong combination I guessed.

Shall we go for char siew bao and leng yong bao next? :P

http://crizfood.blogspot.com/

CRIZ LAI said...

Oops.. Kits is cute! Just like my Janice (one of of nine kitties of mine.. sweat~~)

http://crizfood.blogspot.com/

clemente77 said...

Am gonna have to stop coming to your blogs LOL... only get me when am very hungry. Like ryt now, am salivating as i put this comment. I should recommend this place to my auntie cos everyday she has to take these stuff for breakfast at the Chinese shop.
Something that bugs my minds was how you managed to eat all those paus!!!
Cheers to the food haven city
Food, Fun and Living it all in Kuala Lumpur

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...