Mama Lam’s Coconut Croissants

Who remembers replying “chicken butt” when asked “what’s up?” as a kid? That always made me think of my mom’s gai mei bao, or “chicken butt buns” in Cantonese. These bao are made with a delicious buttery coconut filling, and my sister and I always wanted to help her make them. My mom shaped each one uniformly and identically to the next without even using a scale, all lined up like little bao soldiers ready to be eaten, while my sister and I created the most ridiculous shapes like ravioli,