饅天香手作饅頭 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 饅天香手作饅頭 (Man Tianxiang Steamed Bread)

Address: No. 59-20, Section 1, Zhonghua Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei

Website: facebook 

Style: Steamed Bread, Chinese

Price: $$ 

Conveniently located right next to exit 2 of Ximen MRT station, this may not be entirely worth of a Cake Tour. I initially checked this steamed bread stand out while on the hunt for a quick, not necessarily sweet snack. After all, my apartment may not have had a microwave, but for whatever reason it had a rice cooker with a steamer attachment, making it possible to warm, freshly steamed bread. This particular stand sold around 18-20 different varieties of steamed bread, most of which includes some sort of pasty filling, and a few breakfast items like sandwiches. Since my visit, they seem to have introduced a selection of cute characters. How come I couldn't have a bear, cat or Pikachu bun? *pouts* 

I'd previously developed a sort of soft spot for the rather unusual fusion of steam bread and cheddar cheese, so I tried it here as well. For my sweet selection, I didn't want any sort of bean/lotus paste, so I went with the simple brown sugar ($20). This was a nice and fluffy, delicately sweetened bun, but the burnt sugar smell was pretty off-putting; it wasn't a caramel or molasses smell, it was simply burnt. Sugar gone wrong. It was almost weird because the bread didn't taste burnt, so if you got past the smell, it wasn't bad, but it was it ever hard to get past that smell! Suffice to say, the cheese was my favourite. 

Rating: **