80YO Self-Taught Street Food Seller’s Pork Belly Steamed Bun Entered Into Michelin’s Gourmand

A street food vendor from a Taipei Night Market has been recognized by Michelin, do you believe your ears?

Image: Giphy

Yup, it’s true.

A night market stall has been awarded a place on the food guide’s Bib Gourmand list in August 2020.

Image: Screenshot from Michelin Guide

This list includes places in Taipei and Taichung, serving high-quality meals for under S$46.

What is this all about? 

80-years-old, Wu Huang-yi, sells guabao at his 60-year-old stall in Huaxi Street Night Market for $2.30.

The guabao is a steamed bun folded into half, and unlike the typical Singapore version, it contains several ingredients like braised pork, salted vegetables, coriander, and ground peanuts.

Image: Michelin Guide

It is also known as ho-ga-ti, tiger bites pig. It is served in a shape that resembles a boat-shaped ingot once used as money in China.

Source: Tenor

His Secret To Success

Wu mentioned that his braised meat within the bun must be marinated and stewed until it’s tender and not tough and hard.

The elderly don’t have strong teeth and this is the reason why his guabao is so famous among them.

He had even hesitated and wondered if he should make this guabao.

In order to make it good, he had to go around to other shops to taste them and study the necessary.

He accumulated his knowledge step by step and finally perfected his technique more than 20 years ago.

Hard Work

What makes his guabao different from the rest is that he insisted on making everything by hand, resulting in fluffy white buns that are soft and chewy at the same time.

Image: Giphy

He makes the effort to visit the market at 5am daily just to select pork belly for the buns.

Besides him are his wife, 3 adult children, and a grandson, helping at the stall.

The self-taught chef’s effort has finally paid off.

This also goes to show that no matter what you do, as long as you work hard, you’ll definitely see results.

Image: Giphy

While most reading this article would be stuck in Singapore right now, there’ll come a day where we can finally travel out again for holidays again.

For those travelling to Taiwan, this might be a street food that you won’t want to miss.

Location: 17-2 Huaxi Street, Taipei, 108 Taiwan

Meanwhile, how about some real popcorn chicken?