SEREMBAN, Nov. 25 -- There is something about Seremban's siew bao that feels deeply local yet quietly universal: the comfort of hot pastry, the richness of seasoned meat, the flake of a crust that gives and crumbles.

As we drove through the streets in the early morning, it's as if the smell of baked dough began to drift through the air. It's the promise of that fragrant moment when bun meets bite.

We came here at the insistence of our friend Rachel, a Seremban-born local now working in Singapore.

"You must try my family's favourite," she said, steering us determinedly along Jalan Seng Meng Lee in the old town until we detected the scent of pastry, which seemed to hover in the air long before the shop came into view.

The shop in questi...