香祺上海烤饅頭 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 香祺上海烤饅頭 (Xiangqi Shanghai Baked Bun)

Address: No. 186, Zhongzheng 3rd Road, Xinxing District, Kaohsiung

Website: facebook

Style: Chinese

Price: $ 

This little stall located next to exit 4 of Formosa Boulevard MRT station isn't really what you think of when you hear the word bakery. It's just a single lady selling about half a dozen varieties of "baked buns" outside, some sweet, some savoury - and others somewhere in between; however, this was, for me, probably the most memorable and tasty Cake Tour stop for the city of Kaohsiung. 

Priced at $7 each (the more you buy, the more you save), they're cheap and the different flavours are written in English. There was, at the time of purchase, original, cocoa, milk cream, peanut, green onion and... something else? At any rate, I remembered all the sweet varieties. Rather, in keeping with the more traditional Chinese product being sold, nothing was overly sweet. It was only in that fantastic caramelized bottom - easily the highlight of the bun - where you got this amazing pooling of sugar. 

I took original, cocoa and that quirky milk cream/seaweed version. The latter was, put simply, bizarre. You've heard of sweet and salty, salty and creamy is a good combination, but semi-sweet creamy and salty with aquatic undertones? It was a questionable pairing. The cocoa was probably the most sweet of the bunch; however, despite being visibly coated, the cocoa itself had no taste. Not sure how that was possible. The unexpected winner? Original. Hands down, the best of the bunch. The original was amazing: soft tear-apart inside, subtly flavoured dough - and that sticky sugary bottom. So good! The only spot in Kaohsiung that I was seriously considering a return trip to! 

Rating: ***1/2