Hip Pandan, Brown Sugar Pau & Cold Brew Coffee By Young Home-Based ‘Hawkers’

By day, Alvin Lee, 28, works in a western restaurant at the front of house. By night, he and his partner Robert Ong, 24, who also works in the F&B industry, hand-make paus from scratch using Alvin’s family recipe. Both declined to be photographed for this feature because of their full-time jobs. They sell their buns under the brand Taiping Bao. After all, the Lee family has been making paus in Tai Ping (a small town in Perak, Malaysia) since the 1970s when Alvin’s grandfather began selling his wares at the market to make ends meet. The second generation later evolved the business into a wholesale one, supplying paus to bakeries and eateries in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Ipoh. Alvin used to help his parents make the buns, but later came to Singapore to seek new opportunities.

However, he now hopes to grow the family business so that it remains relevant to the younger generation of consumers who value artisanship and heritage in the things they buy. While his family continues to operate the business in Tai Ping, Alvin is testing the waters here in Singapore. “Tai Ping is a small town and the business needs to grow beyond the small towns of Malaysia to thrive,” says Alvin. “Since we're now into the third generation, we want to make our products more attractive and accessible to the younger crowd.” He chooses to hand-make the paus here in Singapore for now instead of getting them from his family’s factory as he’s offering more new-fangled flavours, and orders are too small at the moment for exports.

Hence, along with 9 flavours of paus stuffed with not-so-traditional fillings like honey osmanthus lotus seed paste and toasted peanuts, the duo is also selling their own cold-brew coffee. “When you eat pau, you usually want to enjoy it with a drink like coffee or tea. We thought to sell cold-brew coffee because we feel it makes a nice pairing with the buns. When your order arrives, you can sit and have your bao with your coffee [at home]. You don’t have to go out and buy a drink separately or make your own,” explains Robert.

The pair let on that the buns are made from premium wheat flour and fine sugar to yield a soft, finely-textured dough. Everything is shaped by hand so the paus are delicate and fluffy, with a matte “skin” (the layer that we love to peel off and eat before getting to the rest of the confection). “We don’t use any preservatives, so our paus will only keep in the freezer for a fortnight before the taste and texture start to deteriorate,” says Robert.

The paus are made to order, which explains why they require three days’ notice. Robert typically gets home first from work at about 6pm and starts on the dough. Alvin, his house mate, returns at 8pm and they stuff, shape and steam the paus together. Their home-based business is really a means to gauge the response from Singaporean consumers before Alvin decides if they should expand the business here with a commercial kitchen after the Circuit Breaker. The buns are delivered to customers either steamed, or frozen, depending on how large the order is.

These well-formed plain buns form the base of all the flavoured paus. They are light and fluffy with fine air pockets running through them, giving them a pillowy texture, and have a mild sweet lilt. Definitely better than the supermarket stuff.

This filling has the best texture of them all. It was slightly oozier than the rest thanks to the lashings of osmanthus honey that is folded through it. It might prove a tad sweet for some, but we like the floral fragrance and silky texture.

We could smell the lovely aroma of pandan as soon as we bit into this one (front in pic). We like the smooth texture of the pandan-infused lotus filling and that the flavour of the leaf really comes through. Almost like kaya in a pau.

According to Robert, this is a traditional flavour in Tai Ping and made with peanuts which they first dry-fry in a pan, before sifting out the skins and crushing the nuts to release their natural oil and fragrance. The nuts are crushed so they are still gritty and chewy and mixed with just the right amount of sugar. Tastes a bit like toastier, chewier ming chiang kueh filling.

The filling of soft dark brown sugar mixed with slow-cooked lotus seed paste has a nice floral caramel flavour that makes these paus rather unique.

Proof that the classics are always in fashion. Well-made white lotus seed paste mixed with just enough sugar so the filling’s flavour is warm and mellow.

Slow-cooked till caramelised and then blitzed till smooth, the red bean filling in these buns veer a little too sweet for our liking, but there’s no faulting their lush, runny texture. We know you want to know how it compares to the other famous red bean pau from Malaysia (the one sold by 40 Hands café). In comparison, this pau is fluffier and lighter while the other has a creamier crumb and a sturdier, less sweet filling (we prefer the latter).

Velvety mung bean paste is infused with coffee so that the filling tastes a lot like Kopiko candy. A fun flavour if you’re after something different.

The strong flowery flavour and mildly acidic tang of jasmine green tea really permeates the smooth jade-hued filling. Nice if you like jasmine green tea; a bit of a shock if you’re expecting Japanese matcha.

Using a mixture of Indonesian and Brazilian Arabica beans, this cold brew is soaked for 24 hours to thoroughly extract the beans’ robust flavours. It is smooth with UHT milk and subtle deliciously chocolatey notes. A great foil to the buns with sweet fillings. There’s also a $10 set that comes with a bottle of cold brew white coffee and a pair of premium red bean buns.

Pleasant to eat hand-crafted paus with a good filling-to-dough ratio. Though some of the newer flavours aren’t traditional, they’re still comforting and familiar rather than faddish. We’d buy the honey osmanthus and white lotus seed paste buns again.

Order at https://shop.taipingbao.com.sg/collections/all, with three days’ advance notice. Orders over $50 enjoy free delivery islandwide (except to Sentosa and Tuas). Otherwise, delivery costs $10. Spend more than $30 and you get $5 off with promo code BAOHUAT$5OFF.

Photos: Annette Tan & Taiping Bao