gua bao

I may have mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of the Taiwanese take on western bread. I have yet to have anything here that was better than okay, and most of what I have eaten is terrible. The same cannot be said of chinese style bread, which is great. This is a gua bao, sort of a Chinese version of a hamburger. It is wrapped in a steamed bun, the chewy, slightly sweet, breadlike thing that they do very well here. Inside, they put a big hunk of stewed fatty pork. Yum. They smear some chopped, pickled, salty cabbage on that, then throw cilantro and sweet, ground up peanuts on that. Peanuts and cilantro are an excellent combination, especially combined with the richness of the fatty pork, the salty goodness of the pickled cabbage, and the spongey base of the steamed bun. To top it of, I usually throw some Taiwanese chili sauce on top, because that's just how I roll. I get a bowl of some kind of soup and one of these little numbers, and I'm very happy.