In the past year, you've seen ramen burgers and sushi burritos. Now get yourselves acquainted with baos, Chinese-style steamed bun clamshells wrapped around meat that's usually pork. Cafe Hiro serves a version on its appetizer list, but if you're not already familiar with the concept of an entire restaurant dedicated to steamed buns, then you're not from New York. One of the most well-known is Eddie Huang's Baohaus in Union Square. Huang is also the narrator of ABC's Fresh Off The Boat, and the author of the book that inspired the show. But it was Baohaus that put him on the culinary map. And his isn't the only joint in New York to serve baos. There is, of course, Momofuku and its famous pork belly buns.
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Baos Hog in Garden Grove is, to my knowledge, the first and only restaurant in OC to open solely around the concept of the pork bun. It opened about a week ago and it's currently offering five kinds of bun: One with duck, one with beef, and the other three, pork and pork belly. Also on the menu are the same proteins but served with rice, a Hainan chicken rice dish, and ancillary items like salt-and-pepper wings.
You can check out Baos Hog's menu and food pictures on its Facebook page, or go there. The address is 13918 Brookhurst St. in Garden Grove…which, I don't have to tell you, is a lot closer than Manhattan.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.