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2013-11-16
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In my own opinion, fusion is the best type of food, in theory. Unencumbered by historical accident and the worldwide distribution of plants and animals, fusion takes what's good from anywhere and puts it together to achieve genuine food greatness. In theory. In practice, however, it's mostly just OK.Little Bao's concept is pretty straightforward. Take the bread of your standard bao, make it into a bun, then make little sandwiches with it. The server recommended we have 3 sharing dishes and a bao
Little Bao's concept is pretty straightforward. Take the bread of your standard bao, make it into a bun, then make little sandwiches with it. The server recommended we have 3 sharing dishes and a bao each, so that's what we decided on.
The place is obviously trying to be 'rad' (or whatever the kids say nowadays). Beck was playing when we walked in. We were seated right in front of the bao preparation station, and got to watch all the magic happen.
Eggplant with Minced Shiso Pork Tempura and Ume Ponzu Dip: Shiso, I just found out, is an herb. I didn't know that while I was eating these. I can't say I remember any exciting new flavor. These were fine but my wife and I thought the minced pork was a little undercooked. I'm just going to say I have no clue what ume ponzo is, but the dipping sauce was good. Good: B
Slow-Braised Organic OBE Short-Rib Dumplings: I was not a fan of these dumplings. They were nicely crisped on the bottom, so there was nothing wrong with how they were cooked. But inside was very tender, almost mushy, bbq short ribs, and I think the combination just didn't work. There was a nice hot sauce to go with them, but I don't think that really rescued them. OK: C-
My favorite dish of the night, "macaroni and cheese." This was actually thick rice noodles like tteok bokki, instead of macaroni. The cheese sauce was a little grainy and oddly pink in color. I thought the rice noodles and cheese sauce constituted a mediocre mac and cheese, however, the crispy stuff on top really took this dish to a new level. Flavorful and crisp without being too crisp, it's hard to describe, but I definitely recommend it. Excellent: A-
Fish Tempura (w/ tamarind palm sugar glaze, pickled lemongrass fennel salad, and tartar sauce). The piece of fried fish on the bao was excellent. Hot, crisp, tasty and not too heavy, perfect for a fishburger. The bao artist put on a crazy amount of tartar sauce, and a crazy amount of the other sauce (tamarind glaze, I guess), and taking bites caused an explosion of sauces in every direction. At least this place has tons of napkins!Too many places, in my mind, don't trust their own ingredients. They go out of their way to get quality fish, or organic beef, or whatever, and then just smother it with so much aggressive sauce that you can't taste the main ingredients. Definitely what was going on here. OK: C+
Our other bao was the pork belly with sesame dressing and hoisin ketchup. Again, very aggressive on the sauce, but luckily pork can stand up much better to that sort of thing. I definitely liked the pork belly-- it wasn't just a pile of porkfat, which I've definitely gotten before after ordering "pork belly." Nicely seared, very tender. A little on the sweet side, but that's to-be-expected. Good: A-/B+
We ordered one green tea ice cream bao, but the owner gave us an additional one for free. Pretty straightforward: green tea ice cream, obviusly, and the bun is made out of really sweet batter, like they use to deep fry oreos in. I lost my sweet tooth when I was about 12, so I'm turning the rating over to my wife who says: Excellent, A.
Little Bao also has a decent selection of imported beer, which is another good reason to give it a try.On the whole, I'd say that I was disappointed. The promise of the place seemed so great and the hype so high, that I almost could not have failed to be disappointed. The stuff here is good, but it's not amazing. It cost around $700 and sure, there was all sorts of fancy and exotic and organic ingredients, but the end result didn't really seem that much different from what you could do with normal ingredients. I'll probably go back to try the two other baos and the things on the sharing menu I missed, but I won't spend any time daydreaming about this place.
Good: B+
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