The art of boluo
The other icon of Taiwanese baking, the boluo bun, is in fact not unique to Taiwan, being commonly found in both Japan and Hong Kong as well. The origins of the boluo bun are already somewhat lost to the mists of time-some say it comes from Hong Kong, since the criss-crossed outside of the bun look like the skin of a pineapple, and the Cantonese word for pineapple is pronounced boluo in Mandarin. What makes this odder is that while Cantonese boluo buns contain naisu, BBQ pork, and a bunch of other flavors, there's no pineapple at all. Some say, though, that Taiwanese boluo bun is an evolution of Japanese Hami melon buns, which have the same kind of criss-crossed outside and look similar to their namesake Hami melons.
But regardless where they come from, green onion buns and boluo buns have made their way into the hearts and minds of Taiwanese everywhere. This is especially true of boluo buns, which have been subject to a raft of creative adaptations and flavors in recent years.
The Taipei City Bureau of Reconstruction has for two years held the "King of Boluo Buns" tournament, with the winner of the creative division of last year's contest being "pearl milk tea boluo," with stalwart of Taiwan's baking industry Fuli Bakery mixing the flavors of boluo buns, tea, and tapioca balls into a thick bread that looks like a glass of Taiwan's trademark pearl milk tea when cut horizontally. In both look and taste, this was not your grandmother's boluo bun.
La Maison du Danemark's "inkfish boluo" was another winner, taking first place in the flavor category.
"Ordinary boluo buns are sweet, so I decided to try and make a savory one," says head chef Cheng Chin-lung, who explains that his inkfish boluo was inspired by inkfish spaghetti. The first batch, though, tasted fishy, so he combined king oyster mushrooms, onion, inkfish sauce, and other ingredients, fried them together with basil, and was ultimately able to eliminate the fishiness and successfully mix the result with dough. To complete the package, Cheng added some inkfish powder to the "skin" of the boluo bun, which meant the whole bun, inside and out, was black. Inkfish boluo buns went on to greater popularity after the competition, and the store sells out every day.
La Maison du Danemark boss Kao Chi-chung also developed the "boluo danish," which is made up of 72 layers, first oil, then pastry, all in a little bun small enough to fit in your palm. This has gone on to become an even bigger seller and the trademark creation of the store. Cheng Chin-lung says that La Maison du Danemark can sell as many as 2,000 of these two specialties a day, and during the peak sales period in winter that number can climb as high as 3,000.
Boluo buns are virtually the national bun of Taiwan, and the top photo shows the winning entrant in the flavor category in 2007's "King of Boluo Buns" competition-inkfish boluo. Beneath is the winner of the creative division, pearl milk tea boluo.