NYC Baked Pork Buns: My Favorite is at Mei Li Wah Bakery and it Costs 80 cents
October 20, 2011
It’s not necessarily the best in Manhattan or the best in Chinatown. I don’t want to spark another comment section controversy as I did with soup dumplings. What Mei Li Wah Bakery does offer is my favorite baked pork bun. They seem perpetually fresh; I’m always handed the last bun on the tray and it’s always warm, airy and filled with a healthy amount of tender, sweet roast pork. Its egg wash makes it a traif challah roll; it would be a perfect security blanket for a defecting kosher eater. The familiar flavor of challah combined with the sinful decadence of swine. Rabbis beware.
Mei Li Wah Bakery 64 Bayard Street b/t Mott St and Elizabeth St New York, NY 10013 (212) 966-7866
Posted in CHINATOWN, Mei Li Wah Bakery
content rss
October 20th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
i bought a handful of these over the summer when i was in chinatown and there were a few big globs of inedible fat in a couple of them that i had to spit out. the pork isn’t the tastiest either, but for 80 cents, i’m happy to do a little spitting
October 20th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
food guy did you really take my comments off moderation and then put me back on w/o saying a single thing? give it a rest already and let people speak
October 20th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
@Sal,
I responded to your comment where you wrote it, in the soup dumpling post.
October 21st, 2011 at 1:55 pm
The freezer I grew up with has never been without at least a dozen of these safely inside. Granted theyre not as fresh, but 1 minute in the microwave makes them almost as delicious. Baked char siew bao out here always have a flakey pie-like dough not the fluffy bun used for steamed buns…not sure I’ve ever seen it in new York but if you do it it’s awesome.
My dads been drinking coffee and getting baked pork buns at mei lei wah since before I was born. I’m pretty sure i had my fourteenth birthday party there. Not sure about the new outfit, haven’t seen it yet.
-Newman
October 21st, 2011 at 4:00 pm
newmsums, where is “here” that you have a pie-like dough?
October 21st, 2011 at 4:39 pm
That’s place we went after the cruise isn’t it?…probably the first time i’d eaten pork that wasn’t bacon, and it was at 8am…
October 22nd, 2011 at 3:30 am
I live in Singapore and have been on a few hong kong eating tours. Don’t remember the 8am post cruise pork buns but definitely sounds like something I would do.
October 25th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Hey NYC Foodguy!
Just got back from Hong Kong. These are quite different from the standard pork bun found in dim sum places everywhere. Without you, I wouldn’t know this existed. Since I’m of the Jewish Variety this is basically a combination of my favorites…pulled pork asianness and light fluffy challahish bread. Dream come true. Thanks for letting me know some of these secrets.
And for the record, a little spitting of fatty chunks is pretty much a standard possibility in any of these types of dishes…especially the fresher ones. Fat is a fact of life. Hard fat chunks in my hamburger, however, is closer to a sin (but totally accepted to an extent).
–Adam (all the rage) Smitty
March 13th, 2014 at 11:41 am
[…] braised white fish with Napa cabbage and chiles. Ayada is my favorite Thai restaurant in Queens. Mei Li Wah has the best roast pork buns in Chinatown and Shanghai Cafe Deluxe has my favorite soup dumplings. […]