Friday, February 09, 2007

Bao Today, Marina Square


Bao Today at Marina Square (#02-234-235/236) is a little dim sum place a difference in ingredients and delivery. From the menu of Bao Today prices aren't over the roof. In fact, it was really affordable. I've personally been told that the food here isn't really exceptional (euphemism for mediocre if you didn't catch the drift) by people that I know (and trust in recommendations). Still I didn't think that it would be so bad that I would write them off without even trying. It's not too bad really. For their prices, it was actually decent. But as I like to think it, taste, like art is subjective.

Minced meat & century egg congee

@ $2.50 a bowl, I got a generous amount of minced meat and some bits of century eggs in there, however it's a very noticeably smaller bowl than I expected. I think it's of a good size if you're doing dim sum and not just having congee. Not mediocre, just pretty ordinary.

Xiao long bao

The xiao long baos ($3) were actually a disappointment. They seem to contain little soup in each dumpling. The skins of the dumpling stuck to any surface they come in contact with so picking them up was tedious process. If you're concerned with having them with the juices intact well..... Crystal Jade and Din Tai Feng does much better ones than these. These, are truly mediocre.

har gao (prawn dumplings)

The prawn dumpings ($3.50) here are quite large. The prawn filling however does come with something which could be fish paste as they look fused together. In all, it was not too bad, but I couldn't wipe away the suspicions of the fillings.

Open faced buns

A basket of these open faced buns came at $2.50. These aren't the usual baos as we know them. What you get is an assortment of meats (pork, shrimp and maybe chicken) with mushrooms and salted egg yoke laid on top of clam shaped "half buns". It looks gimmicky, but didn't taste too bad.

Bao Today's signature Black Sesame Bun with pork fillings

Noteable things about these black sesame buns apart from the grayish skin shade is that the interior were filled with soup or juices more than a usual bao has. For a non dumpling, the insides were really wet and biting into them risks those hot juices bursting into your mouth. I didn't really think too much of the meat fillings which has a generic processed meat flavor making it quite unidentifiable. The black sesame which has been added into the flour that made the bun didn't have the fragrance I was expecting neither.

a gaping wound in the Black Sesame Bun

With a name like Bao Today, I think that it would be great if there was some improvement in how their buns are done. I expected so.

No comments: