The longevity peach (shou tao) is not a fruit but a Chinese steamed bun in the shape of a peach, with lotus paste filling and coloured a bright festive pink. Traditionally, the shou tao is eaten at birthday celebrations of elderly folks where the buns are piled at least knee high on a tray.
Peaches are well known Chinese symbols of longevity and there is a Taoist story about the Queen Mother of the West who has a magical peach tree which bears peaches granting immortality to those who eat them. The tree however only bears fruit every three thousand years. The peach shaped steamed buns are made to symbolize those magical, immortality granting peaches.
In Singapore, we mere mortals do not need to wait three thousand years or even wait for someone's birthday to eat the longevity peach. My mom who loves steamed buns buys them all the time. These ones in the photographs are from a Teo Chew pastry shop near the Hong Lim Market. The bun is fluffy but still a bit chewy, the lotus paste fragrant and not too sweet, just the way I like them. My brother and I were laughing at the shape of these longvity peaches as they were rather round and reminded us of (insert celebrity of your choice) surgically enhanced derriere. We were snickering like teenagers when my mom told us not to umm "disrespect" the buns. I thought I saw Mom giggling a little though. Peach or derriere, we all agreed that these buns taste great.
宝源饼家
Poh Guan Cake House
Blk 531 Upper Cross Street
#01-57
Singapore 050531
Tel: 65340136
Hey nice blog, you take pretty good photos. You started about the same time I did. I'll add your site to my links later tonight, hope you don't mind.
Dennis
asianvegan.blogspot.com
Posted by: Dennis | October 19, 2004 at 10:03 PM
hi ST
very very nice looking bum. oh. hm. i mean Peach! This looks very yummy. Does the bakery have them everyday? Got to get one of this when I go to Singapore. Wanna get long life :)
Posted by: pinkcocoa | October 20, 2004 at 01:00 PM
Hi Dennis, thanks! My photographs are hits and misses as I just use my "idiot" camera and snap away. Not much photographic skill invovled :P
Hi pinkcocoa,that bakery has them everyday. These longevity peaches are quite popular, I guess almost everybody wants a long life :) I have seen them in chinatowns of many cities. You can even get them from the frozen food section at the supermarket, but those frozen buns obviously don't look or taste as good as the freshly made ones.
Posted by: ST | October 20, 2004 at 02:20 PM
Hi ST, nice nice pics on the foods. U take good food pics. Another site for me to track interesting foods. Keep up the good work. :)
The Ipoh HorFun making me hungry...
Btw, like the white puppy. Very cute.
fish fish
http://kuishinbomeow.blogspot.com
Posted by: fish fish | October 20, 2004 at 04:50 PM
Hi fish fish, thanks for visiting my blog. The little white fur shedding machine is a Japanese Spitz :)
Posted by: ST | October 21, 2004 at 11:54 AM
Hi ST,
I recently came across an Italian dessert called 'Le Pesche' (or simply Peaches) that the Italian served during birthday, wedding, and other celebrations..They are in the shape (and colour) of peaches too but filled with sweet marsala flavoured creme patisserie..Do you know at what age birthday are the Chinese peaches served??..Mik
Posted by: Mik | October 22, 2004 at 03:02 PM
Hi mik, reading about Le Pesche is making me drool. Are u planning on making it? It also reminds me of a kind of Japanese ice cream that, yes looks exactly like a peach too :)
If I am not wrong, the buns are served for "da shou" which means the birthday girl or boy will have to be at least in their 50's to 60's.
Posted by: ST | October 25, 2004 at 04:41 PM
Hi there, just wana say hi. :) And I miss these shou tao!!
Posted by: Penny | April 19, 2005 at 08:33 AM
Hi
This blog doesn't look like it's active, but I just wanted to say that this post, plus the address of the Hong Lim shop it contains, proved a real life-saver today when I needed to get 80 shou-tao within a few hours for a big birthday party! The shop had no problems with the order and although the shou-tao are really quite huge and not very refined looking (as you note too), they tasted great. The party guests loved it, and it also made a great ice-breaker and conversation piece at the start of dinner. Thank you!
Posted by: paperpower | February 23, 2008 at 11:54 PM
This looks very yummy.
Posted by: malee | August 31, 2008 at 08:58 PM
peach bun is the best ever! i love it! I'm trying to make it someday or sometime. Excellence blog.
Posted by: i'm | July 17, 2009 at 02:04 AM