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Name of Pork Bun(?) from Toki Underground pop up at Union Market??


Bart

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I fully admit and realize this is a very weird question/request, but......

A while ago (18 months?, not exactly sure) Toki Underground had a pop up an Union Market and I happened to be there one day. The only thing they were serving was a pork bun (at least I think that's what it was called)

It was about the size of a tennis ball and was served without any sauce or anything else, but there was a bit of sauce or broth or liquid inside the bun.  Just enough to make it moist, but not enough to come flowing out.

Anyhow, I'd love to attempt this at home, but I have no idea what it's called.  Did anyone have this dish there?  Does anyone know what it's called?  Or should I just search for Taiwanese(?) Pork Bun?

PS - these things only cost 4 bucks and were very filling.  It had to be the best deal in the entire Union Market

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Thanks!  I'm just going to use the Google so if anyone has any proven Bao recipes that mimic Toki boa, let me know!

The last time I made Baozi, I used Yi Reservation's recipe. You can adjust the filling sauces to mimic Toki's. But, if you really want to cheat and just focus on the fillings, my lazy method is to buy ready-made pizza dough from TJ's or Whole Foods to save some time... :P

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I fully admit and realize this is a very weird question/request, but......

A while ago (18 months?, not exactly sure) Toki Underground had a pop up an Union Market and I happened to be there one day. The only thing they were serving was a pork bun (at least I think that's what it was called)

It was about the size of a tennis ball and was served without any sauce or anything else, but there was a bit of sauce or broth or liquid inside the bun.  Just enough to make it moist, but not enough to come flowing out.

Anyhow, I'd love to attempt this at home, but I have no idea what it's called.  Did anyone have this dish there?  Does anyone know what it's called?  Or should I just search for Taiwanese(?) Pork Bun?

PS - these things only cost 4 bucks and were very filling.  It had to be the best deal in the entire Union Market

They're still doing these at UM now under the Maketto banner. Just had one last week. Great walk-around snack.

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They're still doing these at UM now under the Maketto banner. Just had one last week. Great walk-around snack.

What was the consistency of the filling? My recollection is that it was more liked pulled pork not ground pork. But my memory is a little fuzzy.

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What was the consistency of the filling? My recollection is that it was more liked pulled pork not ground pork. But my memory is a little fuzzy.

That's a good question I can't answer with 100% confidence despite having one less than a week ago. Was walking around a bit trying to decide what to take home from Fiona at District Fishwife and realized I was a little hungry. Passed the Maketto pop-up and, after bring ignored by the only person staffing it for maybe two minutes (not Erik), a woman came over, sold me a single bun which I then scarfed down. Excellent flavor and I suspect you're right about pulled vs. ground but can't swear to it.

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Given the detail that Chef James gave me when I asked about the soup I got there (not just ingredients but down exactly to how he prepared the pork for it), I'd recommend going by the stall, preferably at a less busy time, and asking how the bao are made.

IIRC, that is a constant on the menu; it's the soup that changes.  If he's there, I'd imagine he could give you enough to work with to experiment on your own.  Plus, you could buy one or two for your own enjoyment and experimental purposes <_< .

ETA:  A friend of mine recently told me that she loves to stop by the tiny Honeycomb Grocery that Erik Bruner-Yang has set up at Union Market.  She's found all kinds of cool stuff.

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Given the detail that Chef James gave me when I asked about the soup I got there (not just ingredients but down exactly to how he prepared the pork for it), I'd recommend going by the stall, preferably at a less busy time, and asking how the bao are made.

IIRC, that is a constant on the menu; it's the soup that changes.  If he's there, I'd imagine he could give you enough to work with to experiment on your own.  Plus, you could buy one or two for your own enjoyment and experimental purposes <_< .

ETA:  A friend of mine recently told me that she loves to stop by the tiny Honeycomb Grocery that Erik Bruner-Yang has set up at Union Market.  She's found all kinds of cool stuff.

I wonder if Chef James was the one who ignored me for 2 minutes? He was making dumplings I think. Didn't even look up to say hi, someone will be right back, etc. Of course not a big deal but was a tad awkward standing there at a non-busy time.

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I wonder if Chef James was the one who ignored me for 2 minutes? He was making dumplings I think. Didn't even look up to say hi, someone will be right back, etc. Of course not a big deal but was a tad awkward standing there at a non-busy time.

I can't even recall much what he looked like to say it's the same person, but he was busy when I first got there.  I also wasn't sure of what I was doing and was kind of hovering rather than being assertive.  When I said something directly to him, asking how to proceed, he was quite pleasant and very informative.

There's something about the set-up there that I found a little off.  It was awkward figuring out where to go and what to do.  I sat and ate at the stall, but there's so little seating, I'd imagine a lot of the food must be for take-away.  It's just not a cozy environment.  I feel that way at most of the stalls there.

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Please post your recipe venture and how they turn out!

I did a take on goodeats' suggestion of Yi Reservation's recipe (see post 8).  It's a great site with excellent video accompaniment, which was very helpful for the proper technique in folding the skins.

I found some photos on Yelp of Toki's buns that were cut open and the filling looked much more like pulled pork, not ground pork, so I used hunk of (Smithfield, yikes!) pork barbeque that my wife bought for something else.  It wasn't pulled pork, it was a "block" of pork that I just sliced very thin and then minced up a bit.  I also took JoshNE's suggestion and added a bit of hoisin sauce to about half the buns.

They turned out amazingly well and shockingly good!  The ones with the hoisin sauce tasted a little better and were closer to the Toki version IIRC, but the extra sauce made the buns look a little darker than they should have been, (not pristine white).  Mine were a little smaller than Toki's but about the size of Yi Reservation's.

Here's a shot of them before they were cooked.

post-3390-0-36893700-1422975933_thumb.jp

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