🍽️ Lava Custard Bun

Custard bun with flowing salted-egg yolk.

Lava Custard Bun is an immensely popular sweet steamed dim sum, especially fashionable in Guangzhou tea houses in recent years. Soft fermented dough wraps a salted-egg-yolk custard filling: the filling, made from salted duck egg yolks, butter, sugar and egg and milk, is chilled until set, then wrapped and steamed. The plump, milky-white bun, bitten into while hot, lets a golden custard flow out like lava—the sandy salted yolk blending with buttery richness for a balanced, dense, sweet-savory bite. Success lies in the ratio of the flowing center: too runny and it leaks, too thick and it won't flow. It is often served in the same steamer as char siu and lotus-seed buns, a must-order for dim-sum lovers. Guangzhou diners relish the burst and eat it while hot, making it a representative modern take on Cantonese sweet dim sum.