Celebrate Lunar New Year all year long with an endless supply of London’s favourite bao. Since opening its first food stall in Hackney’s Netil Market eight years ago, Bao has flourished into a buzzy mainstay for Taiwanese-inspired food, with six locations around the city and its own line of alcoholic drinks, tableware, and sauces.
Founded by Erchen Chang, her husband Shing Tat Chung and his sister Wai Ting Chung, before any of them turned 30, the chain’s combination of delectable buns with modernist interiors has inspired block-long queues that are well-deserved.
This year the restaurant is celebrating Lunar New Year by giving every visitor a traditional red envelope filled with the chance to win an array of possible prizes, among them ‘A Bao a day’ pass that guarantees a year’s worth of bao buns. To celebrate this Year of the Tiger – the brave, independent sign of the Chinese zodiac – Bao will also be serving up striped Tiger Claw BBGs (Bao Bakery Goods) filled with molten chocolate.
For a full-on feast, book a festive, multi-course meal featuring coin-shaped dumplings symbolising family reunion, with daikon cakes (another sign of good luck), and a whole Yushiang sea bass, symbolising that diners ‘will earn more than they need’.
Those who can’t visit Bao in person can purchase celebratory treats from its digital ‘Convni Store’, inspired by 7-Eleven convenience stores. Items include a limited-edition tiger T-shirt designed in collaboration with Carhartt, limited-edition bottles of the restaurant’s Tiger Dressing (made with Chinkiang vinegar, garlic, green chilli and sesame oil), as well a Lunar New Year DIY home kit to cook and assemble, including the Classic or Daikon kit, the new Dan Dan tofu noodles, Tiger Claw BBG and a limited-edition poster.
‘In Taiwan, eating a bao is considered good luck over Lunar New Year,’ says Erchen Chang. ‘So we’re excited to bring this tradition to London. This is also the first time a ‘A Bao a day’ pass has become available and we can’t wait to see who wins.’
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