Lava Custard Buns

This bao is a more recent Hong Kong food creation inspired by emojis and social media. Lau sa translates to “flowing sand,” which describes the dish’s molten custard salted egg filling. Created to appeal to younger diners, the Lava Custard Bao is yellow and looks like a face with two little dough eyeballs. They’re fun to eat and, of course, very appealing for social media content. They have been so successful that more bao are being created to look like cute characters, but as a resu