BAO Noodle Shop - An interview with Erchen Chang
Photography and interview by Ariana Ruth
What first made you want to get into the restaurant business in London?
Back in 2012, when we just graduated from university, Shing, Wai Ting and I went on a road trip together back in Taiwan to where I was from. We love cooking and making things with our hands and when we were travelling, we talked about ideas on how to make the perfect BAO and how to search for the perfect balance of flavour. We firstly launched as a pop up and quickly settled into Netil Market where we built our first six-man shack. Our aim was to bring our interpretations of cultures in Taiwan from street food to Xiao Chi houses to the Western style cafes, and our most recent opening BAO Noodle Shop in Shoreditch specialises in Taiwanese beef noodles.
Tell us a bit about the inspiration for the Bao Noodle Shop?
Beef noodle soup is considered a national dish in Taiwan and they hold Beef Noodle competitions annually. A traditional Beef Noodle would be a wheat noodle, either in a light or heavily spiced broth, Beef Shin, Fermented Greens & Coriander. Everyone has their idea of the best beef noodles in town, ask any taxi driver and they will take you to their favourites.
We have always been fascinated by the Taiwanese beef noodle houses and have our own favourite flavours.
Our beef broth is made with aged beef bones and aged beef shins from Philip Warrens, which we cook at a low temperature overnight. It is then enhanced by the short rib and beef cheeks braising liquor, giving that extra mile of beefiness. It is then seasoned with soy and doubanjiang. Even though the broth is a dark red/brown colour, it’s important that it remains clear.
In some particular beef noodle houses, they provide their house spiced beef butter to scoop into the beef noodles. At BAO noodle shop, we also have our own spiced aged beef fat. It’s dark orange in colour.
What is your favourite dish on the menu to order?
It is hard to decide on just one dish. My top two at the moment are the Rich Beef Noodles and Lu Rou Fan. Lu Rou Fan is soy braised pork belly on rice with a crispy egg and fish floss on the side. The rich beef noodle is a must as it’s one of the core dishes on the menu - we slow cook a slice of beef cheek and short rib so it’s very tender and soft on top of the noodles we make in-house daily with flour we import from Taiwan.
Once you've decided on the next restaurant concept, what do you do to prepare?
Going back to Taiwan or another country that gives inspiration is very important. It allows us to immerse ourselves back in Taiwanese culture and of course whatever is appropriate to the concept. It’s also a great chance to step back. In London, the day to day overtakes and it is difficult to prepare. When in Taiwan - all the ideas come rushing in.
What elements have you brought from traditional noodle bars to the Bao Noodle Shop?
The ‘tick’ style menu is simple and the Xiao chi compliments the beef noodles. A selection of cold dishes and snacks completes the feeling. In terms of interiors, we always try to take elements and references but also balance with our own aesthetics. Here we use white tiles and metallic surfaces to bring those colder touches of the beef noodle shops, whilst balancing with the warm timber tones that remain consistent in all our restaurants.
Though your recipes are all popular Asian dishes, have you been able to incorporate any methods, dishes or ingredients from the UK?
We aim to source some of the best and rare products in Taiwan and combine them with great local produce. This is important for our dishes. We work closely with our food suppliers to ensure we get the best produce in UK. One example is our boiled dumplings in a chilli dressing, we fill the dumpling with Cull Yaw supplied by Matt Chatfield. Cull Yaw is an older female yaw that is too old for breeding.
The cheese we fill in the spring rolls is Ogleshield cheese from Neals Yard Dairy, another good example of combining great local produce into our Asian dishes.
Can you share some of your favourite suppliers that you like to work with?
All of our suppliers are great and we have developed a close relationship with them over the past 7 years: Philip Warrens, Swaledale, Hendersons Seafood, HG Walter.
Do you have any exciting plans coming up that you'd like to share?
We are working on reopening BAO Fitzrovia in September - which is really exciting. There will be a new menu where the focus is on deeper Taiwanese flavours which I am really excited about. Fitz is about having an innovative take on Taiwanese cooking. One of my favourite dishes is a sun-dried daikon omelette with cured yolk. We import the sun-dried daikon from the south of Taiwan, it really adds to the flavour of this dish.
What's one of your favourite dishes from your childhood?
Ginger braised Turia gourd and clam broth - it truly brings back memories of my grandma’s cooking. Funnily enough we’re serving a version of the two dishes combined at BAO Fitzrovia.
When you're not eating at one of your six BAO locations, what’s your favourite cuisine to eat?
I don’t really have a favourite - I love all types of cuisines. But I do love a good Turkish meal or a comforting British or French dish!
Cull Yaw Dumplings
Please note that this recipe below is divided into two sections: Hot Dumpling Dough + Fillings & Dressing
Hot Dumpling Dough
Ingredients
300g Flour with 12% protein level
100g Hot Water
90g Cold Water
A pinch of Salt
Instructions
Combine 300g flour with 100g hot water, stir with chopsticks.
Add the 90g filtered cold water and a pinch of salt, knead until smooth. It might look quite crumbly and dry, keep going and don’t add any more water as the time of resting will help. Keep kneading until as smooth as you can get, then clingfilm the dough, let it rest for a couple hours in room temp, or refrigerate it overnight.
Fillings & Dressing
Ingredients
Combine mince and all seasonings in a mixing bowl. Use your hand to mix in one direction and gradually add in the stock until it’s completely absorbed. The mince should be sticky and have resistance. Add in the diced onion and bind together
When the dough is ready. Roll the dough out to long sausage shape. Portion them to 15g dough balls. Dust your rolling pin and the surface you are working on with some flour, roll out the doughs to circular discs.
Wet a butter knife with some water, use it scoop out 25g of filling and fold into the dumpling skin. Place the folded dumplings on a flour dusted tray, repeat until all are made.
Before boiling the dumplings, make your dressing by combining all ingredients.
In a large pot, bring water to boil. Place in the dumpling one by one and set a timer for 4mins or until all the dumplings floats to the top. Serve immediately with the dumpling dressing.
Ingredients
For Cull Yaw or lamb fillings
300g Cull Yaw or lamb mince
100g stock (this can be any stock you have in the fridge. preferably something gelatinous)
half tsp black pepper
half tsp white pepper
half tsp ground cumin
5g salt 3/4tsp
20g soy sauce
10g veg oil
5g sesame oil
120g onion
For Dumpling dressing
30g Chingkiang vinegar
70g chilli oil
20g soy sauce
20g mirin
10g Spring onion finely chopped
20g Onion finely diced
BAO Noodle Shop
1 Redchurch Street
Shoreditch, London
E2 7DJ
United Kingdom
