Bao Bar

Review

Forget burgers, here comes Bao

Photo: Heribert Corn The place was listed on "Willhaben" two months ago, says Remo Girstmair, Tristan St. James is supposedly back in London, and the cheerful Cornwall Pasty Pirates store is history. And because he and his buddy had had a bao project in the back of their minds since a trip to Taiwan, they went for it. Bao - folded yeast dough flatbreads filled with all sorts of spicy things - can be found on every corner in Taiwan and in a thousand variations, Remo explains, and bao is the street food par excellence in Taiwan. In fact, the fluffy flatbreads seem to be doing pretty well at the moment. They sit well in the hand, like tacos, and are even softer than even the softest burger buns - and "softness" is a very important point in the street food scene. Remo Girstmair, who completed hotel management school in Switzerland and has been living in Vienna for two years, says they have been working for a long time to make their baos really soft. Flour, yeast, sugar and salt mixed in the right amount, left to rise at the right temperature and for the right length of time and then, above all, prepared in the right appliance - in the Bao Bar, they bought a Taiwanese bamboo steamer especially for this purpose, which is also very prominent and unmistakably Asian in the otherwise very gray-blue-wooden, simply designed snack bar. In the meantime, there are three different fillings for the Taiwanese fluffy flatbreads: Tofu, chicken and - the classic - gua bao, marinated and braised pork belly. You choose two or three bao (€ 6.90/8.90), and by the time the patties are filled, there is still a soba salad waiting in the fridge next to two Japanese craft beers from Hitachino Nest.
The buckwheat noodles are mixed with carrots, cabbage, peanuts, coriander and a lime wedge, fine, the noodles are perhaps a little too soft and you can add a little seasoning, but overall a good, refreshing noodle salad (€ 3.50).
And the bao are ready, the "chicken" version is interpreted quite locally, namely with crispy breaded chicken cutlets, which are accompanied by beet, cucumber and a honey-sesame-wasabi marinade, not bad. The pork belly is in the form of a slice with an unfortunately somewhat limp crust in a flatbread, marinated with sweet hoisin, served with cucumber, coriander and peanut, also very good, but the decisive bit of madness is somehow still missing. In addition to the three standard baos, there should also be one or two seasonally filled flatbreads in the future, which is a good thing. And the taro root delivery problems should be sorted out soon, because the taro fries with Korean ketchup make you quite curious. Summary: After Mexican, Vietnamese, Chinese and Oriental, now also Taiwanese street food - fluffy and good. Bao Bar 7th, Zollergasse 2 Mon-Sat 11.30-20.30 www.baobar.at

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