Christine Su

Review of Baohaus

Ignore the whack one star reviews from non-Taiwane...

Ignore the whack one star reviews from non-Taiwanese people who haven't the faintest idea what a gua bao is, where Eddie Huang came from, or what he's doing for Taiwanese food culture in NY. They don't understand the art form. Taiwanese street food has its own lineage of masters and Eddie's food is in conversation with a melody you've never heard. Any Taiwanese eater worth their can see this before they even take a bite, from the nutty caramelized skin, to the glistening fat with even brownness showing penetration, to the pile of fresh peanut snow on top...Eddie done right. This is the one that redeems Chang's bastardization. It makes bao that white bloggers rave about something that doesn't make Taiwanese Americans want to scream into a pillow. Even if it's still gotta be delivered on a soft white pillow for Americans to mess with it. #theycanthandlethebloodricecake

It pisses me off the type of eaters who will whine about $6 bao (or for that matter, tacos, arepas, lumpia, pho) but probably pay $40 for a steak, pasta, or sushi. Just like they want to box certain types of food into Chinatown. No shade to kaiseki or carbonara - but other "cheap" cuisines are arguably just as complex (if not more). They're often labor intensive, traditionally prepped by people whose labor was unpaid, with rich and deep culinary traditions that span generations. There is just as much complexity to regional Taiwanese street food as there is to terroir of French wine - literally on a street by street level. The fact that these foods have often found their place on the margins, watered-down versions of American takeout, speaks more to our society's structural displacement of migrant culture, ignorance, and assimilation to white tastes, rather than the actual value of food made by the hands of grandmas.

What's it worth to experience a bite that literally takes hours to braise and prepare, using spices imprinted in the collective memory of a people, tasted thousands of times over each person's childhood, that speaks to a diaspora from a small island that spans literally the entire world? Hella more than $6, and I'll gladly pay that and more. Take your culturally tone-deaf misconceptions, take that box where you want to put our food, our history, our actual bodies, that circumscribed district where you would prefer to experience all of it, and burn it down. We are not here for your convenience. Leave the money. We'll take your six dollars but not your disrespect.

Keep holding it down Baohaus. Much love.