Happy Pau of Tanjung Sepat Hai Yew Heng Pau Fame @ Setia Indah JB

Stumbled upon Happy Pau 包开心 shop in Taman Setia Indah while hunting for breakfast this rainy Monday morning. I was curious because the signboard outside says Hainanese Pau 海南包 - what is Hainanese pau? I wondered.

今天不小心在 Jalan Setia 7/18 碰到包开心. 跟老板小谈一下才知道, 他们来自丹绒士拔.海友兴手工海南包.  是 Tanjung Sepat 很有名的老字号. 包的种类有十几种. 招牌是梅菜包. 包皮比较厚, 轻轻松松的, 口感有一点像白面包里面的肉. 朋友们有时间可以试试哦.




Wandered inside Happy Pau 包开心 - it was simply furnished but clean and comfortable with air conditioning. I like such simple, neat, unpretentious places.



I was excited to give Happy Pau a try when I saw the unusual paus on the menu. There's black pepper, sambal petai, red rice wine chicken in addition to the usual pork, char siew, tau sar etc.



I went for the red rice wine chicken pau 紅糟雞包 first as I was curious about it - never seen anything like this before.



The red rice wine chicken filling was mild tasting - I can taste the characteristic red rice wine flavour but wished it was deeper, more robust.

The snow white skin stood out - relatively thick but light and soft, it's like the "white flesh" from the inside of a loaf of white bread but more moist and sweeter. Nice.



I like the sambal petai pau 臭豆包 because I like sambal and petai lah 😄

Same nice snowy puffy sweet skin wrapping the mildly spicy and crunchy stinky bean fillings.



梅菜包 I like this preserved vegetable filling. The preserved vegetable was well cleaned with most of its saltiness and all of its grit washed away. The filling's mild savoury-saltiness went perfectly with the sweet pillowy skin.



Black pepper pork filling 黑胡椒肉包. Just mildly savoury sweet peppery tasting.



Happy Pau's 生肉包 pork bun filling is meaty and well enveloped in savoury-sweet sauce.



Vegetable pau 菜包 with savoury-sweet stewed bangkuang (Chinese turnip or jicama).



Bean paste bun 豆沙包. The house made bean paste was soft grainy and not overly sweet.

After eating all these pau, I still couldn't see anything Hainanese in it 😝



So I went to ask the friendly boss lo 😄

Owner Mr Khor's family runs the famous 丹绒士拔.海友兴手工海南包 Tanjung Sepat Hai Yew Heng Hainanese pau shop in Selangor state (1.5 hours drive south from KL near KLIA).

Mr Khor's grandfather founded Hai Yew Heng in Tanjung Sepat in the 1920s with a Hainanese pau master hence the name Hainanese pau. The shop in Tanjung Sepat is now run by Mr Khor's son (4th generation). It does a booming business with KLites on day trips and busloads of tourists passing through.

Mr Khor set up shop in JB three years ago (at first in Mount Austin), now tucked away in a quiet corner of Taman Setia Indah. He personally handmakes all the pau at the shop.

👉 Come and try this famous Tanjung Sepat old name pau shop familiar with KL folks - it's much nearer for us now in Setia Indah (and without the infamous crowds at the Tg Sepat shop). 包开心's fillings are generally mildly flavoured and there are many varieties ranging from traditional to exotic (but local). The pau skin is thick but very soft and fluffy. They are very hard to photograph as tearing it apart collapses the pau and makes it look flatten 😂 

Look out for their 梅菜包 which KL folks are crazy about. Next time, I want to try also Happy Pau's lor mai kai (glutinous rice chicken).



Restaurant name: Happy Pau 包开心



Address: 71, Jalan Setia 7/18, Taman Setia Indah, Johor Bahru (same row of shops as Le Cutz)
GPS: 1°34'25.6"N 103°45'58.6"E | 1.573787, 103.766276
Tel: 016 749 9388 | 010 931 4184
Hours: 7:00am - 4:00pm

Non Halal



Date visited: 8 Jan 2018

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