Pineapple Bun With BBQ Pork

At Chinese bakeries, bountiful pastries line every shelf. You might use a tray and tongs to pick up a baked pork bun. Or you could opt for a pineapple bun: a large sweet roll that doesn’t actually contain any pineapple, but instead gets its name from its yellow sugar topping. At select bakeries, though, you don’t have to choose between the two. Some bright baker got the idea to combine them, creating buns with barbecued pork on the inside, and a pineapple-bun exterior. The result is a bready, sweet, salty experience.

The innovative pastry has been widely adopted at Taiwanese, Chinese, and Hong Kong bakeries. Many diners consider the dim sum chain Tim Ho Wan’s crispy pork buns, which have a custard-derived sugary coating and pork filling, to be both the first and best version of this treat. Their version is smaller and lighter in color than your typical pineapple bun; it’s also prepared by the staff of the “the world’s cheapest Michelin-star restaurant.”