Singapore Eat: Dough Magic (扑面而来) @ Tengah
- Rick
- Aug 30
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 22
Dough Magic (扑面而来) is one the two food stalls located inside Scarlett Supermarket (思家客), on level 3 of Plantation Plaza in Tengah estate, beside Old Chengdu Sichuan Braised Delights (老成都秘制卤味) stall. Dough Magic, as its name implies, is into all kind of dough-made foodstuff, especially buns.
The stall serves a number of Chinese dishes, meat dumplings, mini pan-fried buns, buns, etc. Frozen food items, such as buns and rice dumplings (during Dragon Boat Festival), are also available for purchase. Tables and chairs are available in the supermarket for dine-in.
The "One Bite" Pan-Fried Bun (一口生煎包), sold in sets of 10 pieces, fits into the mouth in whole — it's about mouth-size. The buns are well-fried with crispy outer skins and still soft inside that retain the juiciness of the meat filling with dripping oil. They are pleasant tasting, not salty and has nice textures.
Note: The buns are served warm rather than hot as the oil inside the buns may scald the mouth if they are just-fried — and cannot be eaten in "one bite". To get the buns just-fried and piping hot, wait for the next batch of buns and be careful not to scald your mouth when eating them hot.
Top-left: The Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings (煎饺 / 8 pcs) have minced meat mixed with different vegetables as fillings — I have both a mix of the dumplings with cabbage and chive. They are nicely-fried with chunky fresh meat with distinct flavours of either cabbage / chive.
Top-right: The 肉夹馍, literally "meat in a bun", is served with large amount of pulled braised lean pork meat in a pan-fried flatbread. The hot crispy bun with tasty braised flavours makes it a hearty meal despite its size. Add some chilli paste to give the bun a spicy touch.
Bottom-left: The Shanxi Cold Noodle (陕西凉皮) is served at cool temperature even though it is translated as "cold skin noodle" online. The dish uses broad-flat rice noodle, topped with cucumber, beansprouts, dried tofu puffs and drenched with a spicy sauce. Despite the reddish appearance, the sauce is not too spicy and nicely flavoured with sesame, garlic and other spices.
Bottom-right: The Cold Dishes (凉拌菜) — cucumber with black fungus, mushroom slices and silken tofu with century egg (3 dishes for $4) — have mala-similar flavours and mild-spicy. As cold dishes, they have firmer and crunchy textures as expected. The tofu and century egg are bouncy too, not too soft.
Among the frozen buns made by Dough Magic, its range of "animal" buns have skins made using wheat flour and has firmer textures — more mantou-like. These buns are beautifully decorated as animals using coloured flour rather than sugar icings, thus keeping sweetness levels in check. And they are attractive to kids — and me too.
Both the Tiger Bao (萌虎豆沙包) and Panda Bao (熊猫豆沙包) have red bean paste as fillings. And Rabbit Bao has purple sweet potato paste filling. The fillings are mildly sweet with distinctive flavours. The Duck Bao (丫丫流沙包) has salted egg custard filling that is ultra-fine, smooth and mild sweet-savoury — a hot-seller that usually sells out fast.
Top-left: The Potato Bao (紫番薯仔包) is made to look like a potato with rough "soiled" skin and pothole-depressions like real potato. The filling is purple sweet potato paste too. After steaming, the skin of the bun will crack open like real potato.
Top-right: The "coarse grain corn cake" (粗粮玉米饼) is a type of small bun made from coarsely ground cornmeal and carries a mellow aroma of corn. It is an alternative to rice / noodle.
Bottom: The Twisted Roll with Sesame (葱花花卷) and Twisted Roll with Spring Onion (葱花花卷) becomes big and fluffy after steamed and has mellow flavours of white sesame and spring onion respectively. The Chinese way of eating is to pair these twisted rolls with hot / cold dishes for meals in place of rice / noodle.
Dough Magic is often mistaken as a business from China due to its servings of Chinese delights but it was actually started in Singapore by a lady entrepreneur from China who picked up her bun-making skills in Taiwan. Dough Magic is a true-blue Singapore brand.
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Address:
Plantation Plaza, #03-04
Blk 127 Plantation Crescent, Singapore 690127
Opening Hours:
9:30am to 9:30pm | Daily
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