Steamed buns @ Tokyo Pao, Yurakucho, Tokyo

 

Steamed buns, despite being imported from Chinese food, have been a staple pick-up meal or comfort food for people around these parts. Usually, they are pretty straightforward and simple, with fillings like adzuki or pork and chicken. However, there is one establishment that is willing to make things more colourful, literally. And Tokyo Pao seems to have taken this call. 

Look what we have here?

A tiny corner shop inside the Yurakucho Marui shopping mall, this place sells a literal rainbow of buns. Each is colour coded to symbolise the flavours they have inside. The standard pork bun is wrapped in white dough. But from there, things became more interesting. And pretty colourful as well. From a curry filling to pickles, and even fried chicken, nothing is really ordinary for this steamed bun place. In the end, I opted for chilli prawns and "lu rou", which is a type of Taiwanese-style braised pork dish, to which stood at 238 yen a pop. 

The porky on the left, and the spicy on the right. 

The "lu rou" bun worked surprisingly well. Then again, it has been a staple in most Chinese dishes, so I should not have been so surprised. The meat was flaky and tender, with a nice punch of soy and five spice. The bun itself was fluffy and had great bounce. 

A lot of punch. 

It was a delicate texture but still was able to hold the heavy filling inside. This was some optimal chemistry here. I am not sure why this bun was colour coded as pink, but then again I cannot complain. This was a pretty-looking bun.

Mushy, but still good. 

The chilli prawn bun was more on the unusual side. Usually eaten with a side of rice and soup, this take in a bun was a bit bizarre. It was quite tasty though. The chilli was at a nice spice level and had a light yet lingering sweetness in it. The prawns were springy and pretty fresh. But as this dish usually means fried prawns in a hot sauce, the batter for the sauce became quite mushy. I was ok with it, but I would not be surprised if other people may not find this appealing. Still, another good-looking bun and the orange hue make more sense in this one. 

What a selection!

Although not your standard Chinese fare, I have to say I am impressed by the creativity. And there are loads more to try, like the green fried chicken flavour? Now that is some creativity. The only difficulty for me is that it is in Tokyo, so just simply dropping by isn't much of an option. But if I am by the city again, this will definitely be on my list of to-dos. So if you somehow want to beat me to it, or try some of the interesting flavours as well, then the address is as follows:

ITOCIA B1F Itocia Food Avenue, 2 Chome-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda City, Tokyo 100-0006

Another angle.