COURIER LIFE, DEC. 13-19, 2019 63
NOW OPEN AT
HELLO PANDA FESTIVAL
hellopandafest.com
C Bao Asian Buns Comes
to Hello Panda Festival
BY JOE DISTEFANO
As the Culinary King of Queens, I’m so very
fortunate to live in the most diverse and delicious
destination in all of New York City. Really I’m
not royalty though, I’m an ambassador, and a
hungry one at that. Today, we return to China
to talk about C Bao Asian Buns a Queens-based
business that specializes in one of my favorite
sandwiches, Chinese bao. They’re just one of 60
food vendors curated by the World’s Fare at the
Hello Panda Festival, which kicked off at Citi
Field last weekend and runs until January 26th.
For a long, long time the only pork buns I
knew were the char siu bao found at Chinese
bakeries in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The first time
that I encountered a fluffy hinged bao bun was
at a Peking duck restaurant. Until David Chang
came on the scene in the 1990s offering his take
on Taiwanese gua bao, or pork belly sandwiches I
didn’t think of the bao outside the context of Peking
duck. Unlike the tasty but rather one note char siu
bao found in Chinese bakeries these little marvels
were packed with thick slabs of wobbly slow cooked
pork belly, pickled mustard greens, and sweetened
peanuts creating a symphony of flavor. At about
the same time roast duck buns, notably the
famed “duck a buck” as prepared at Corner 28 in
downtown Flushing’s bustling Chinatown, started
to become a popular street food.
On a cold Tuesday afternoon I stopped by C
Bao’s Times Square outpost and tried both the duck
and pork belly buns. I’d had them once before and
thought they were pretty good, but frankly I don’t
like to wait on lines so hadn’t tasted either in years.
Both remain among the best bao I’ve ever had in
New York City. Each of the fluffy buns was slightly
larger than my fist. The pillowy dough of the gua
bao yielded to tender slabs of pork belly whose
richness was perfectly offset by the pickled greens
and peanuts. The duck version was filled with hefty
slices, which somehow retained their crisp skin
even in the cold Times Square air. I’m willing to bet
that the Korean beef, chicken teriyaki, and tofu bao
are just as good, but I stuck to the classics.
“C is for Chinese and C is also the initial of my
husband’s first name,” says Annie Ye who started
C Bao Asian Buns with her husband Chun Chung
Ip in 2013. The couple, who hail from Wenzhou,
China, and now live in Fresh Meadows, developed
the recipes for the bao themselves. Thanks to
their delicious buns, C Bao quickly became a hit
at some of New York City’s most popular food
markets, including Smorgasburg, Queens Night
Market, and Flushing Night Out.
“We thought bao would be a healthy meal for
customers,” says Yen adding the top seller after almost
10 years in business remains the hefty Peking duck
bun. “They love our food, especially the duck,” Yen
says with a laugh of her four children.
Since they’re open until 11 p.m. you could
check out C Bao’s sandwiches in the dazzling lights
of Times Square, but why not enjoy these Chinese
treats, by the lights of the handcrafted lanterns at
North America’s largest Chinese lantern festival. I
know I’ll be there!
1479 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
(516) 213-8769
Also available at the Hello Panda Festival
at Citi Field
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/hellopandafest.com
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