Making Hot Dog Buns

Yesterday, I went to Agape Care Centre (ACC) to help in a school holiday programme. The children had come back from morning activities at Straits Baptist Church (SBC). After lunch, they looked too exhausted to play any games in the afternoon. As many were also absent, Emily, the facilitator, decided to run only a simple activity with them. When I heard that SH was going to make buns, I was very interested to give a hand.

ACC started a hope shop last year by selling cookies and other delicacies on Chinese New Year. Since, they also provide food and drinks based on orders. Besides their chocolate cake that I bought for Albert P's birthday, I had also tasted a few of their dishes and bread when they catered for functions. Even though these single mothers did not have any formal training, their food was always tasty.

For their long-term business, ACC had invested in professional equipments.

This time, they needed to deliver 150 hot dog buns to SBC the next morning. SH prepared an extra amount of ingredients so that ACC children and staff would have some for afternoon tea.

Apart from Siew Hong and May, the rest of us were not familiar with the making of these buns. First, I was instructed to remove all the packets from the hot dogs. Then I was asked to break eggs, pour them into the flour in the mixer. Next I wiped the wet hot dogs with a clean cloth. When the dough was formed and rose more than two times bigger, Auntie Gek was in charge of dividing it into smaller portions weighing 60g each, while I was entrusted by Siew Hong to knead the dough into a stripe and roll up a hot dog tightly.

Andrew, the new employee who had been in the baking business previously, also joined us. At first, Siew Hong was still tolerant with the results of our poor performance. When she realized that there were too many buns from our hands which were not presentable, she had to "fire" us. So I helped May who had taken out the rested hot dog buns to brush beaten egg over them. Then May sprinkled roasted sesame seeds on top of them before sending them to the oven.

The dough was transformed into golden shells. The freshly baked hot dog buns looked very appetizing. Those with irreproachable appearance were placed in trays

while those out of shape were put aside for self-consumption. The children were already very impatient to wait for the nice smelling buns to be served.

Nathanael was a great supporter of his mother Siew Hong's cuisine. After finishing one whole bun, he requested another half.

We adults also paused to have our self-made snacks.

When I left the centre at around 5.40pm, there were only 63 buns which had passed the "quality control". Siew Hong, May, Andrew and Emily stayed back to achieve the target of 150.
Bon courage!