明新食品 [Mimi's World Tour]


Bakery: 明新食品 (Mingxin Food)
Address: No. 569, Qingping Rd, Anping District, Tainan
Style: Chinese
Price: $$ 

Despite its aspirations as something more than a simple bakery (after all, I don't often encounter bakeries using "grocery" as a label), Mingxin is a classic multi-location bakery with shelves of sweet and savoury baked goods lining two walls and a large space dedicated to gift boxes like pineapple cake. Their specialty, however, appears to be steamed buns with meat. They sell them individually or by the box. They come hot and the whole area smells like meat bao, which somewhat deters from the bakery experience. At least the sweet baked goods. 
But why am I talking about meat bao? I'd seen "beehive" buns in many bakeries before this moment, but I'd never tried them. They're usually slightly more expensive than the average bun and the whole "beehive" description didn't tell me much, but it was here that I gave them a try. They were well-priced ($38) and quite large. Beyond the almost cookie-like shell, crusty on the outside and a little chewy on the inside, the inside was filled with raisins (possibly the bees... though I could have done without them) and a sort of rich almond? paste. Quite rich, to tell the truth. It was different from the standard fluffy white bread, however, and the taste and texture was quite a pleasant surprise. Certainly not bad for a meat bao place! ;)

Rating: ***

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