Pineapple bun

Pineapple bun

Origin
Alternative name(s)	Bo lo baau
Place of origin	Hong Kong
Details
Type	Sweet bun
Main ingredient(s)	Sugar, eggs, flour, and lard

Pineapple bun
Traditional Chinese	菠蘿 包
Simplified Chinese	菠萝 包
Literal meaning	pineapple bun
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin bōluóbāo Yue: Cantonese Jyutping bo1 lo4 baau1 Southern Min Hokkien POJ ông-lâi-pau (王梨包)

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pineapple buns just out the oven

A pineapple bun is a kind of sweet bun predominantly popular in Hong Kong and Macau, though they are not uncommon in Chinatowns worldwide. It is known in Cantonese as bo lo baau, in which bo lo means "pineapple", and baau refers to a kind of bun-like item in Chinese cuisine.

History

In June 2014, the Hong Kong Government listed the pineapple bun as a part of Hong Kong's intangible cultural heritage. Tai Tung Bakery in Yuen Long, which had been making pineapple buns for more than 70 years, was a key proponent of including the technique for making the buns on the list of 480 items of living heritage.

In September 2014, a police raid found that several suppliers (including Starbucks, 7-Eleven and Cafe Express) had been selling pineapple buns made with tainted oil, known as "gutter oil", from an unlicensed factory in Taiwan. This oil was recycled from kitchen waste, as well as being a by-product of leather processing and offal from slaughterhouses.

Composition

The top of the pineapple bun (the part which is made to resemble a pineapple) is made of a dough similar to that used to make sugar cookies, which consists of sugar, eggs, flour, and lard. It is crunchy and is quite sweet compared to the bread underneath. The bread dough underneath is the same used in Chinese style Western breads, which is a softer and sweeter dough compared to Western breads. It is popular with breakfast or afternoon tea.

Although it is known as "pineapple bun", the traditional version contains no pineapple. The name originated from the fact that its sugary top crust is cooked to a golden-brown color, and because its checkered top resembles the epicarp of a pineapple.

Buttered variant

Many Hong Kong restaurants, such as cha chaan tengs and dai pai dongs, offer an item called a buttered pineapple bun, which is a pineapple bun with a piece of butter stuffed inside. They are known in Cantonese as bo lo yau (菠蘿油), in which bo lo means "pineapple", and yau (oil) refers to butter. Variants of this include using custard in place of butter.

Typically, the bun would be brought hot from the oven to the diner's table, and served halved with a large slab of butter in between the halves. This item is sometimes criticised for containing too much fat and cholesterol.

Other common variants

The pineapple bun may come in miniature sizes (迷你菠蘿包), it may be used as a bread roll for sandwiches with luncheon meat (餐肉菠蘿包), or it may be pre-stuffed with red bean paste (紅豆菠蘿包), custard cream (奶黃菠蘿包), barbecued pork (叉燒菠蘿包), or a sweet filling of shredded coconut (椰絲菠蘿包) like that in a cocktail bun. It is possible to order a "pineapple pineapple bun", actually stuffed with pineapple (菠蘿菠蘿包), although this is very likely the product of misinterpretation of the name by non-native bakers.

Japanese "melonpan" and Korean soboro ppang (소보로 빵) or soboru ppang (소보루 빵) are variants that use the same ingredients for a German streusel-like texture on top but without resemblance to a pineapple.

In popular culture

• McDull, the main character in the Hong Kong cartoon film McDull, Prince de la Bun is often seen with a pineapple bun, since the Chinese name of the film is 菠蘿油王子 (Prince of Pineapple Bun with Butter).
• In 2005, "pineapple bun" was nominated as the name of a typhoon, but was rejected because the director of the Hong Kong Observatory stated that news reports concerning the typhoon would sound nonsensical.

See also

• Baozi
• Bun
• List of buns
• Melonpan, the Japanese equivalent of pineapple bun