Steamed pork bun

Last weekend, we went to IKEA. There were a few bits we needed - some bathroom storage, some shelves - but it's always a trial. So as a sweetener, whenever we go to IKEA we also do a side trip to the Chinese supermarket, Wing Yip, which is more or less on the way.

We'd hoped to have yum cha in the Wing Yip restaurant, but when we got there it was utter chaos. A crush of people milling around, trying to attract the attention of the woman handing out seating tickets, but she was also taking bills to tables and collecting money, so we decided it was futile and just hit the supermarket.

There are things (Chinkiang vinegar, different grades of soy sauce) that are now available in supermarkets, so our visits to speciality shops like this are less frequent now than they were when we first moved to the UK. It means we fill our trolley with other things. Frozen dumplings, tofu puffs, sake and some nice lacquered chopsticks. And I spotted these frozen Taiwanese buns, par-cooked, ready for steaming and filling.

I've tried to make my own steamed buns before, but they weren't very good, so this seemed like a much better idea.

For brunch this morning I thawed some leftover barbecued pork belly, covered it with a mixture of hoisin sauce, some dried chilli in oil, a little soy and some Chinkiang vinegar and put it in a hot oven to get crisp around the edges and melting in the middle. In 15 minutes the buns steamed to light fluffiness, ready for filling with the pork and some cucumber and spring onion. Infinitely better than making the buns myself.