How Hong Kong’s most iconic buns and pastries were born

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Hong Kong-style baked goods such as the pineapple bun and egg tart are widely celebrated among locals and tourists. Other pastries such as the cocktail bun and the sausage bun are less popular, but are staples in local breakfast culture. These beloved snacks are uniquely Hong Kong, but the story of how they were created involves the city’s history of colonisation, migration and war. In this episode of Eat Drink Asia, Post Reporter Lisa Cam visits chefs and bakers to find out how bakeries in Hong Kong learned from different cuisines across the world to create baked goods with a distinct local identity. This episode of Eat Drink Asia is made with the support of Cathay Pacific.

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[Mac_N_Cheezy]

As a Cantonese kid, I grew up eating HK style bakery foods but I still love traditional Chinese steamed buns too, they my not be as fancy or modern but things like Char Siu Bao (bbq pork bun) and Nai Wong Bao (custard bun) will always be classic.

[winniesato]

My childhood memory rests on Maxim's chestnut cake!!! 栗子蛋糕

[eddiensw]

8:10 nice to see a bunch of cute kids enjoying some traditional HK buns..

[thelessercat]

kids who haven’t eaten cocktail buns?! i’m a teen and when i was in kindergarten we were fed cocktail buns for tea time. it was great!

[ruijuanzheng]

8:50 i love this kid with his voice, so cute

[babyomegaplusultra]

I love everything about cake like this! 🍰

[snchannel]

The more I hear Cantonese language the more I like the way it sounds

[gweilocal]

Love this! Thank you for sharing the history of these classic HK treats! ❤

[markshen]

All these decades living and working in Hong Kong 🇭🇰, as a Hong Kong born citizen, I still have not even tried any local HK buns and pastries, let alone egg tarts from Macau 🇲🇴 !

[Onlyme.n.u]

My Russian wife loves the pineapple bun and it's such a Hong Kong icon. 🇭🇰

[Worldwithoutboarders]

As a child I disliked pineapple buns, but now It's one of my favourite Chinese cakes! Old wife's cake and cocktail bun is my most liked cake.

[krisko]

cocktail buns are my favourite HK style bun!!! 😋

[tliew]

I wished we have more of these bakeries in the US, it is so hard to find here. We mainly get the boring donuts here.

[yyyyy]

I didn't know this kind of bread/bun are called Hong Kong style. They are also quite common in any south east asian bakery that I thought it was the "default" bun everywhere, apparently I was wrong 😅 (I never visit western country, so have nothing to compare)

[FMFvideos]

Never in my life have I heard that Hong Kong is famous for their pastries.

[jyy]

1st imported beer in HK was San Miguel Pale Pilsner

[monkeyguy]

I’m not from HK but I personally liked to eat Po Lo Bao (Pineapple Buns) in Singapore ya! 😊

[albertchiang]

As a LA native....I constantly see the constant culture similarities among these buns...I wish SCMP can expand on this subject. I often always wondered about one of my favorite bakery here in LA. PORTOS CUBAN BAKERY....There meat pies taste like Wu Gok...dunno if the Cantonese Cubans had anything to do with it.

[michelleduong]

Steaming is still far superior compared to their baked equivalents. Steaming gives the bread that light, cloudy bounce and chew that you cannot replicate by another cooking method.

[petergriffin]

airlines should add egg tarts if they bound to/from HK