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What do you mean you haven’t started mulling everything in sight yet? Surely the best thing about Christmas – goodwill to all aside – is the fact that you’re encouraged to shovel handfuls of spices into any and everything you’re cooking.
Bao knows this all too well and are getting in on the festive action with its very own mince-pie bao puds. The sweet seasonal treat is available from November 29 and it comes filled with a spiced mix of dried citrus peel, brandy and pineapple. Add some hot vanilla custard and top with icing sugar and you’ve got yourself this Xmas’s most wanted alt.pud. It arrives alongside a whole damn Xmas menu from the good people of the Taiwanese-inspired Bao, which also features a Christmas-dins-style main in the shape of a gua bao stuffed with veal stuffing, pickled brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce and homemade gravy. There are also stuffing croquettes made with breadcrumbs and apple, sage, rosemary and thyme. A stuffing croquette is something we’d not ever really thought was possible until this moment in time but is now all we can think of, especially seeing as we’re writing this perilously close to lunchtime.
BAO’s food delivery service Rice Error is treating its hungry band of fans to a special Christmas rice box, too. It comes with soy-braised guinea fowl and a soy egg, stir-fry cabbage and ginger bak choi. That’s not all. Oh no. Then there’s sun-dried daikon with preserved black beans, pickled veg and Taiwanese sausage.
You can find branches of Bao in Soho, Fitzrovia, Borough, King’s Cross, Shoreditch and Hackney's Netil Market. Please eat, feast and be merry at whichever one you fancy.