Bao zi, a common street vender food and a typical 'chinese breakfast sandwich' are just 1 quai each and a favorite snack of Nathan’s and Ricky’s. I kept avoiding these weird doughy balls because of their appearance. From the street venders, I bought and ate only the things that looked familiar and safe to me such as a piece of bread that was sort of looked like a pizza. Also, I don’t like food that feels ‘gummy’ when you eat it and Bao zi looked potentially ‘gummy’. I am not crazy about China’s gummy dumplings and I assumed that these were just really large and really gummy dumplings. They are pasty-white, softball sized, balls of dough that come out of straw steamer trays. They contain unrecognizable green and brown stuff as a filling. See why I avoided them? Anyway, last Friday night Ricky and I went into Xiasha because we were REALLY bored. He had the green stuff it van drop us off close to where his favorite Bao zi stand, that he discovered on his ramblings, was located.
After an interesting walk through the part of town with a lot of very small ‘?hotels?’ with names such as Romantica we finally got to his stand. Tourists definitely don’t go in this area, it’s where the locals shop. Don’t worry it wasn’t dangerous, not much of China feels dangerous, just really different. Ricky got 5 vegetable Bao zi and 1 bravely got one meat bao zi, by the time we had gotten a half a block away I knew I would need another one so we turned around and I bought 1 more and Ricky bought 2 more. The white dough was not gummy but a moist soft bread that was missing any salt flavor. The flavorful brown stuff sort of tasted like pork. Chinese eat a lot of pork so I am hoping that was what the filling was. I am not sure how, but Ricky managed to eat all 7 of his Bao zi. I was stuffed after my 2. This is a meal that will get repeated, but if I compared it to the 10 rating I give Willies Weenee Wagon, the Love District Bao zi Stand would only rate a 7. It might have made a 7.5 if I could have located a real diet coke to go with it. I will continue my culinary quest for the Chinese version of Willies………
