Mantou at Sardinas

We used to buy mantou at the Sunday Market or supplied by our Chinese friend.

I recently discovered it the supermarket while scouring through their chiller. They have different flavors unlike what we get bigger and plain. But I find this mantou which is pandan flavor a bit thicker and not fluffy. I will switch back to the one with from our Chinese friend.

For this meal steam the mantou and open a can of bistek flavor sardine.

Kainan@Handaan. More fun in the Philippines! 

From wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantou

Mantou, often referred to as Chinese steamed bun/bread, is a kind of steamed bun originating inChina. They are typically eaten as a staple in northern parts of China where wheat, rather than rice, is grown. They are made with milled wheat flour, water and leavening agents. In size and texture, they range from 4 cm, soft and fluffy in the most elegant restaurants, to over 15 cm, firm and dense for the working man's lunch. (As white flour, being more heavily processed, was once more expensive, whitemantou were somewhat of a luxury in preindustrial China.)

Traditionally, mantou, bing, and wheat noodles were the staple carbohydrates of the northern Chinese diet, analogous to the rice, which forms the mainstay of the southern Chinese diet. They are also known in the south, but are often served as street food or a restaurant dish, rather than as a staple or home cooking. Restaurant mantou are often smaller and more delicate and can be further manipulated, for example, by deep-frying and dipping in sweetened condensed milk.

They are often sold precooked in the frozen section of Asian supermarkets, ready for preparation bysteaming or heating in the microwave oven.

TA similar food, but with a filling inside, is baozi. In some regions, mainly in Shanghai, mantou can be used to indicate both the filled and unfilled buns.