“The siopao, a Filipino fast food favorite, may be counted among “Filipinized” Chinese dishes, like pancit” points out food writer Margaux Salcedo. But her quick search on the Internet shows that nowhere else in the world are these buns also called siopao. “The Chinese (apparently) calls them baozi, the Thais – salapao, Hawaiians refer to them as char siu bao; the Vietnamese identifies them as banh bao”she writes in her column on the Philippine Daily Inquirer ”But they all mean the same thing - a filled bun.”
“The difference seems to be in the filling. The Hawaiians’ char siu bao offers barbecued pork inside, similar to our asado siopao, while the Vietnamese version offers ground pork, like our bola-bola siopao” reveals her further search. “The “Filipinization” is obvious with the asado filling, pork asado being a viand of Spanish influence derived from the Spanish word “asado” meaning “roasted,” although pork asado is a favorite at Filipino-Chinese restaurants” she finishes.
Ilonggos have their own favorite sio pao. Be it one with a savoury filling or maybe that which has a nicely textured bun. It can also come from one’s favorite Chinese restaurant, a snack shop along the highway or a hole in the wall food shop.
Let me take you in a “sio pao in the city” gastronomic tour and begin with the restaurant that sio pao built. The mere mention of Kong Kee makes one instantly think of sio pao for it has been it’s signature product ever since.
They have pork, chicken and pork-chicken. The pork sio pao brings back a lot of good taste memories especially with their signature sauce. I give their chicken sio pao “plus points” for having slices not shreds of chicken but the taste reminds me of some native Ilonggo delicacies – can’t be sure if it’s binakol, tinu-om or tinola.
A stone’s throw away is Roberto’s and you guess it right – Queen sio pao. This popular big sio pao is filled with chicken and pork adobo, Chinese sausage, bacon, hardboiled egg. It also has the masculine counterpart; the King with almost the same filling except bacon becomes ham.
Most of the time its size is mostly on the bun and the filling is just a mere fraction of it. But yes the filling tastes good that one hopes to have more of it. Also it tends to be messy since when you take of the paper bottom, everything falls off that most of the time I end up eating the Queen – with a spoon!
Walking around 10 minutes to Iznart Street brings us to a bakeshop famous not for it’s sio pao but for biscocho – Wewin’s. But it’s usually the sio pao I go there for. Very flavourful with the bun consistency I prefer, sort of chewy and filled. No need for sauce for the filling is already saucy but if you’d insist for it, they’ll give you - banana catsup! Yet unexpectedly, you may learn to love it!
Tibiao Bakery, with its numerous branches, also makes sio pao but as a popular bakeshop, it seems they’ve done well on the bun. Fluffy and tasty, you can actually eat it on its own that others say they like Tibiao sio pao mainly because of the tasty bun. The plump sio pao comes in pork and chicken.
In the same league is Deocampo – a popular pasalubong shop synonymous with barquillos but their sio pao is among the best sellers. Many times, I had to wait since it’s always out of stock. Actually, I used to don’t like their sio pao but when I had the chance of tasting them “fresh from the steamer” at their pasalubong in shop in Jaro, I became an instant fan. It’s among the fully filled sio pao and they use no fatty portion of the pork, while others don’t like the potato extender in the filling it seems.
Meanwhile in Villa, forget about seafood and lechon for a while, for there are good sio paos too. The famed “Dinagyang” becomes a sio pao filled with saucy filling of chicken or pork. They also have branches in the city and it’s where the issue starts for me.The handling of these sio pao (from Villa) is not that good. One time I saw unsold sio pao being thrown unceremoniously into cartons without even proper packaging that the sio pao touches the box. Also most of the time their sio pao are flat because of these handling – chicken filled soft piaya anyone? But nonetheless it’s among the best chicken sio paos I had.
Right across it, is a much simpler snack shop and “sari sari” store in one. It may not ring a bell to most but Nang Pat’s Siopawan sa Villa was among my great discoveries last year. I had some misadventure going there but it was greatly rewarded with this sio pao. With among the tastiest fillings I tried – savoury asado dripping with sauce!
There you have it – the ups and downs of my sio pao in the city journey. But don’t make me dictate what’s good or not, for taste is subjective. The best thing to do is taste them for yourselves and whether you agree with me or not, it remains to be seen.