Minute trip to Taiwan

Last Wednesday was another one of those typical rainy, gloomy days with me sitting, staring into space in the back of the Chem Eng library. I must have appeared to be either half asleep, or deep in thought pondering upon the underlying philosophy of a radiative heat transfer problem. Hangry, more like. I was craving something naughty, something unique, something that tasted like home. After five minutes of desperate scrolling up and down my Instagram feed, I got an answer.

BAO, created by Erchen Chang and brother and sister Shing Tat and Wai Ting Chung, started off as a miniscule travelling street stall with Street Feast and Kerb. Many loyal customers, awards and baos later, they secured a regular Saturday trading spot at Netil Market, then finally in 2015, transitioned into a permanent site in Soho.

Despite being surrounded by the fast changing food trend, they stuck to their two signature dishes: Gua Bao and their Taiwanese fried chicken, called Xian Su Ji. If you’ve never heard of a Gua Bao before, it’s a popular Taiwanese snack consisting of a thick slice of braised pork belly sandwiched between a folded, steamed bun.

Back to the story. After a high speed powerwalk session from college straight to South Kensington Underground, an impatient four stop journey on the Piccadilly line followed by a confident march up north from Piccadilly Circus, I arrived at the simplistic exterior painted a calming light grey, expecting to see a queue so long that it would question my reasoning behind coming here in the first place. Normally, especially during weekends, the queue would start on the street opposite and stretch far around the corner. Wait. No queue? I must have been dreaming.

Accepting my luck with gratitude and joy, I walked in and was shown to a seat by the clean, wooden bar table. A one-page, A5 size menu followed, highlighting all their signature dishes with beautiful artwork and also an old-school tick-sheet for you to input the quantity of each dish you desire.

The menu at their Soho site has developed much more since their street stall days. Nevertheless, it is short and sweet, easy to read, no frills, no fancy language and no hidden costs. They still have a good range of seven snacks, six types of Bao and four sides. Everything dazzles and is extremely tempting, despite some items being more exotic than what the normal Londoner is used to: pig blood cake, trotter nuggets, kale salad with salted egg. Don’t expect one Bao to fill you up – it’s only the size of a palm. And given the many tempting choices here you wouldn’t want to leave with just one in your belly anyway. Think of their dishes as tapas.

Drinks-wise, as their small, flavourful dishes team up so beautifully with a beer, especially after a long day at work (in Chinese we call them Xia Jiu Cai), a variety of beers, ciders and sake are available. If you are looking for an authentic Taiwanese experience for your tastebuds, go for a can of Taiwan beer! Or go for a pot of their Oolong tea.

All that research on Instagram reduced my menu ticking activity to less than ten seconds. I quickly shoved the sheet to the waitress and sat waiting with high hopes.

First off, the Classic Bao (£4). The heavenly combination of the pillowy soft, melt-in-the-mouth steamed bun and the tender, flavourful braised pork was finished off with lashings of fragrant peanut powder and coriander. Wipes are available so feel free to dig in with your hands.

Next up, the Fried Chicken Bao (£5). A compromise for anyone wanting to try the fried chicken without having just plain fried chicken. BAO’s fried chicken is truly one-of-a-kind. A light, crumbly, crunchy soy milk batter encasing tender, juicy bitesize pieces of chicken, seasoned with mouthwatering spices. The addition of the Sichuan mayonnaise and the kimchi all sandwiched between a black sesame bao is everything I ever needed in life.

Out of curiosity, I went for a portion of Pig Blood Cake (£3.50) – a rectangular cousin of the British black pudding and a common street food not only in Taiwan, but also in China and Korea. BAO’s version, based on the Asian style blood cake, comes mixed with glutinous rice and fried until it’s crispy on the outside, yet wonderfully moist and chewy inside. As horrifying as this may sound to some, it’s delicious and you definitely can’t taste any blood. Rich, savoury, and rounded off by that gorgeous runny soy-cured egg yolk.

A meal is never a meal without dessert. The only dessert item available is their fried Horlicks ice cream Bao (£4). The fried bao is slightly sweetened with a texture like a brioche or a doughnut. A generous scoop of their light, malty Horlicks ice cream melts slowly between the bao, forming a magical harmony between contrasting temperatures and textures.

Aside from my choices, other popular items include the aged beef rump cap, which is basically thin slices of tender beef marinated in soy sauce. For vegetarians, the spicy fried daikon (radish) bao, sweet potato chips and kale salad are available.

I arrived hungry and left fully satisfied, my taste buds swimming in umami, without having broken the bank. What’s led to BAO’s success is simple, sincere, down-to-earth, good food.