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Where does Hong Kong’s pineapple bun come from? Japan, Mexico or a creative baker’s mind?
Pineapple buns are named for the pattern of their golden-brown crust. Do we owe them to Japanese occupation or Chinese expelled from Mexico?
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The pineapple bun – bo lo bao, or bo lo yau when sliced open and stuffed with a slab of butter – is a popular Hong Kong pastry found in many bakeries and convenience stores in the city, and in Chinatowns around the world.
Contrary to its name, the pineapple bun does not contain any pineapple. It is so named because of its crumbly golden-brown crust, which vaguely resembles the exterior of the tropical fruit.
The bo lo bao is sometimes likened to the British hot cross bun, but the two are unrelated despite Hong Kong’s history as a British colony.
Tai Tung Bakery in Yuen Long has been making them since the 1940s.
The origin of the pineapple bun is unknown, but in 2014 the bakery’s owner told the Post the bo lo bao has “been a neighbourhood favourite for decades”, before which “there was something similar in Japan”.
He was referring to the Japanese melonpan, a bun topped with crispy biscuit dough cross-hatched to resemble the rind of a melon, specifically a cantaloupe melon. The second part of its name is the Japanese transliteration of the Portuguese word pão, which was originally pronounced “pan” and means bread.
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