EAT BAO FOR BREAKFAST

From breakfast bao brimming with haloumi to pillows of pork belly, life just got better for bao lovers

BAO down snack lovers: you may be witnessing the birth of a Gold Coast food empire.

Shane Mcdowall, who diners may recognise from The Boatshed Currumbin, opened Burger Bao last week at Capri on Via Roma. From breakfast bao brimming with haloumi to pillows of pork belly with green apple coleslaw, the menu is intended to suit a range of palates in, if all goes to plan, a range of places.

“I wanted to start something we could look at franchising and have several shops around the Coast,” Shane says.

While there has already been interest in the franchise, for now Shane is focusing on getting everything moving seamlessly ... and introducing deep-fried bao and dessert bao.

“Bao is simply an Asian, very white, steamed bun with different kinds of filling,” Shane says. “The ingredients of the actual bun are unbleached wheat, water and sugar, with a bit of yeast and salt, and we steam them for cooking. The bao is only a handful – not a big overpowering burger. It’s more like a little Asian slider.”

The eatery will be breaking new ground with its breakfast bao. “It’s not common on the Gold Coast for bao to be served for breakfast – usually they stick to duck or pork,” Shane says.

“We’re doing a bacon and egg bao, a smoked salmon bao, mushroom bao, haloumi bao, rissole bao and a tofu bao.

“They’re breakfast items, available from 8am, but they will be available all day. We did an opening special of $5 each, but I’m thinking we’ll carry that on for good.”

They sound simple, but each bao has been jazzed up with special combinations, such as a tamagoyaki egg, spinach and orange aioli with the smoked salmon, and pickled fennel, onion and a chilli ginger chutney with the haloumi.

Balancing these flavours and textures is the cornerstone of good bao, which Shane was well aware of when designing the menu. “They’ve all got that crunchy element, the bao is the soft element and then there’s either sweet and sour or hot and spicy,” he says.

“Everything has a salad element for that fresh feeling when you bite in. We did a lot of taste testing, trying different sauces and combinations and ultimately we ran with what was most popular.”

The rest of the menu contains more classic flavours – pork belly with green apple coleslaw, Szechuan chicken, confit duck, Thai fishcake, soft shell crab and more.

“The deep-fried soft shell crab has been really popular,” Shane says.

“It’s a full baby crab deepfried whole, and the bao has legs poking out of it.”

Burger Bao, Capri on Via Roma, Isle of Capri