Ipoh Hand Made Pau 怡保手工包 (Eunos)

Ipoh Handmade Pau 怡宝手工包 is one of those stalls that had piqued our attention whilst we passed by their stall in a coffeeshop at Geylang Road previously. A somewhat new addition to the local F&B scene, Ipoh Handmade Pau had expanded its operations, with a second outlet that had just recently opened their doors at the renovated coffeeshop at Blk 7 Eunos Crescent which also houses tenants such as that of Soldier Chicken. Taking up the space of a usual-sized stall in the coffeeshop, Ipoh Handmade Pau does seem to blend well into the surrounding shops fairly well though one can still easily identify them with the large signboard above the stall that illustrates some of the items which they have to offer. Whilst Ipoh Handmade Pau does carry some other offerings such as the Fan Choy and the Glutinous Rice on their menu, much of their focus would be on their pau offerings — their pau offerings are pretty much what one would expect from a pau specialty shop; apart from more conventional items such as that of the Red Bean Pau and Char Siu Pau, Ipoh Handmade Pau also has the Shou Tao (i.e. Longevity Peach Bun), Coffee Pau and Amy Yip Big Meat Pau on the menu as well.

Since we made our visit to the outlet of Ipoh Handmade Pau at Blk 7 Eunos Crescent on a weekend afternoon, they were already pretty much sold out on some of their offerings such as the Siew Mai. Looking for something meaty to have since our brunch did not comprise of any items with meat, we ended up going with two Paus; one being the Coffee Pau, and the other was the Char Siu Pao. Between the two Pau, we did feel that the Coffee Pau was the slightly more better executed one; whilst the filling for the Char Siu Pau was actually more decent than that of some more generic versions that we had came across at other coffee shops and food courts, the bun for the Char Siew Pau was slightly thick on one side. In comparison, the Coffee Pau we have had came with a more balanced bun, though the bun was albeit drier; perhaps due to the infusion of coffee that might have taken some of the moisture that makes for the fluffiness away as well. What really got us fairly impressed with the Coffee Pau was the fillings; coming with what seems to be a red bean filling that has been infused with coffee, the Coffee Pau had a subtle but evident kick of caffeine that was consistently delivered with every bite — one of the better iterations of Coffee Pau we had come across thus far.

Having been to Ipoh Handmade Pau and seen what they have to offer on the menu, it would not be wrong to say that Ipoh Handmade Pau’s offering does look somewhat generic to what other pau specialists around the island have to offer. While items like the Shou Tao (i.e. Longevity Peach Bun), Coffee Pau and Amy Yip Big Meat Pau are items that not all pau specialist stalls would serve up, we cannot really comment that they are inventive items that shapes up the character of the establishment either. Having tried both the Coffee Pau and Char Siu Pau during our visit, we found that both Paus are pretty decent offerings — in fact these are often better than the bag we would usually find average from establishments that are similar to them. That being said, we have had better Paus from other establishments or the same nature previously, and these probably would really warrant a trip for us to make our way down for them; at least for the items that we had tried. Still, we would think that the Paus are a great alternative to that or mass market paus that can be easily found at certain coffee shops and food courts around — also something which we would not mind having if we are around the neighbourhood.