JB Buy: B.O.D 包栈 Buns & Dim Sum @ Taman Sentosa

B.O.D 包栈 is probably not unfamiliar to those who visited popular shopping malls in Johor Bahru, like KSL City Mall, Mid Valley Southkey, AEON Bukit Indah, etc. Its outlets serve fresh handmade buns and dim sums for dining-in (certain outlets only) or buying them chilled or in frozen packages to take home.

The B.O.D outlet in Taman Sentosa is located along Jalan Sutera, near Kedai Kopi Xuu Yau Wanton Noodle (品苑云吞面).

B.O.D's signatures are handmade pork steamed buns with three variants: Kung Fu bun, big bun and char siew bun. There are other types of bun too, such as red bean, custard, vegetable and preserved vegetable. Other than buns, there are pork siew mai (金牌烧麦), classic and non-classic versions of glutinous rice chicken (糯米鸡), glutinous rice dumplings (包栈香粽), etc.

Most of B.O.D's buns are freshly-made in each outlet. Most buns are flash-frozen in packages for selling while some are kept chilled in fridge to be sold as set meals that need to be heated up quickly.

B.O.D's signature Kung Fu Pork Steamed Bun (功夫肉包) are freshly-made daily and kept chilled in the fridge — not in frozen packages. The bun's pork filling contains mostly large pieces of lean meat, egg and spring onion, and is lightly seasoned. The aroma and taste of the fresh meat filling is distinct and juicy. It is delicious. Small in size, the bun is usually sold in 2 pieces. A box of 6 pieces will be slightly cheaper.

The Handmade Pork Steamed Bun (手工大肉包), sold frozen in packs of 4, has different filling from the Kung Fu bun. Each bun contains minced and lean pork, egg, crunchy Chinese turnip, onion, spring onion, dark soy sauce, etc. It is not too oily nor savoury and each bun is big enough to make a meal for a single pax.

The Preserved Vegetable Steamed Buns (梅菜包) are sold in packs of 6. Each bun is made using wholemeal flour and filled with Chinese pickled mustard, minced meat, onion, etc. It has a nice mellow taste — no strong taste of the picked mustard — and not overly sweet nor savoury.

B.O.D 包栈: Handmade Big Bun & Preserved Vegetable Bun

B.O.D’s dim sums are delicious too. Their Black Pepper Pork Dumplings (黑胡椒烧卖) have fillings using pork and fish pastes with black pepper seasoning. They are meaty with bouncy texture and pleasant black pepper aroma.

The Sweet & Sour Beancurd Skin Rolls (酸甜腐皮卷) have pork fillings with minced vegetables. The skin rolls are surprisingly bouncy and taste great after steaming. The accompanying sweet-sour sauce has well-balanced taste with mild spiciness.