#68 – SWEET BAO FRIES at BAOHAUS

Once again Time Out New York released their Top 100 Dishes of the year and once again, I’m going to eat my way through every one. And no price point or subway delay will stop me. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100.

Eddie Huang may not be as famous as Bobby Flay or Mario Batali (yet), although in New York he is even more notorious. He’s always in the press, whether he’s picking a fight with a critic on his blog, outwardly supporting the illegal Four Loko, or cooking outlandish Asian “stoner food” like Cheetos Fried Chicken at his recently shuttered late night restaurant Xiao Ye.

But his original food stop, Bao Haus, is still a late night option for partygoers in the Lower East Side. Here the concept is just as gimmicky as nearby Meatball Shop, but a lot more focused. The only thing on the menu are bao, which are Taiwanese steamed buns. In fact the menu is so limited that the only real difference between each menu item (which have witty names like Chairman Bao and Birdhaus Bao) are the proteins. They all come with crushed peanuts, cilantro, Haus Relish, and Taiwanese red sugar. We tried the hanger steak and the pork belly. The buns were a little harder than I like, but the flavor combinations work really well. And were a nice snack (although slightly overpriced at about $4 each).

Yet the Time Out list item was technically not a bao, but a dessert dish that used the same base ingredient. They’re called sweet bao fries and Huang chops pieces of the stemed bun, sweetens, and deep fries them. It’s pretty ingenious and the results are bite-sized pieces of fried white bread that taste like a cross between french fries and doughnuts. You get a choice of two types of thick gooey sauces (taro or black sesame) which are usually drizzled over the top. Since I wanted the full experience, I had the guy give me both on the side and dipped my bao fries.

The taro sauce was my favorite, which tasted like an earthy caramel sauce, although the dark and sweet black sesame was also addicting. They both went extremely well with the not too greasy fries. These are a great late night (or mid afternoon) sweet snack.

BaoHaus has a cool, hip hop atmosphere, in fact the employees were arguing over whether they should listen to Jay Z or something else. There are just a handful of ghetto bar stools and Asian American knick knacks around the shop. We came in for lunch, which felt strange because you can tell this is really a late night spot that encourages debauchery and drunken eating. Just the way Eddie Huang wants it.

Would BaoHaus’ Sweet Bao Fries make my Top 100 of the Year? They get an 8 out of 10 because they are incredibly unique with the simplicity and base deliciousness of all stoner food.