A Bao Time

I checked out A Bao Time at Food Truck Friday in Plaza Midwood. I love the menu and presentation. I had the sriracha chicken bao. Very fresh and beautiful presentation. My only comment was that they could pump up the seasoning… a little bland and no heat. My friend had the same comment on the chickpea bao. The avocado hush puppies were great! I love hush puppies and the avocado and chile lime seasoning is a nice twist.

Two days later and I’m still dreaming of those steamed buns. I can have everything on this food truck for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Friday night was my first encounter with a BAO time. I decided on the curry chickpea patty after the description given to me by the guy taking my order. I was gonna go with the shrimp one but dang, that veggie one sounded amazing. And that it was!
The avocado hush puppies tasted like a margarita! Absolutely delicious.
My hubby had the duck buns and he is currently, as a result, also suffering from the same predicament I am 2 days later. We want more!!!

I came across this food truck one Friday night at Birdsong Brewing. There was a short wait to order, the guy at the window was quite friendly and helpful. I ordered 2 bao — one with pork belly, one with tempura shrimp — and an order of avocado hushpuppies.
There was only about a 10 minute wait between ordering my food and receiving it.
The bao (soft bread parcel that hold the meaty delicousness) was fluffy and a just a little sweet. The pork belly included a thick slice of pork belly that was more fat than meat — which is a little different than how most places are serving pork belly — and was quite tasty. The shrimp tempura included a large tempura shrimp wrapped in the bao. The avocado hushpuppies don’t have much avocado flavor, but are quite moist — I assume due to the addition of the avocado. The hushpuppies are served with a somewhat spicy sauce for dipping.
Each item was $ 4 — $ 5. You receive 2 baos per order about 10ish hushpuppies.

These guys are amazing. One of the best food trucks in Charlotte. I’ve had the Pork Ramen, Duck Baos, Fried Chicken Baos, and I always tried their special. If you see these guys around, definitely worth checking out.

Got to check this place out recently with two of my favorite Unilocalers (you know who you are)!!!
First of all, I have no idea what a Bao is — second, I should probably just cut and paste John H’s review here and call it a day. Okay, so I just Googled it. Baozi is Chinese for a steamed bread roll, or for short, my friends call me Bao.
The Sriracha Chicken Bao was basically «the bomb» — let’s just call it a Chinese taco, but better. Just get one! The Lumpia were crunchy and delicious, and although I couldn’t taste much Avocado in the Avocado Hush Puppies, they were still nicely done. My second favorite was the Korean Napolean (who by the way, is much shorter than the French Napoleon and doesn’t wear a funny hat); layers of flavor upon flavor, including pork belly, fried egg and enoki. Somehow they managed to get Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Salty, Sour, Umami (not yo mamma) and Spicy all in one dish. Hey now!!!
Way better than average food truck, run by happy, friendly guys who like to cook the heck out of some food! Check them out for yourself!

Some of the best things in life happen, unscripted, by coincidence, or whatever your belief system is… this is what happened to us yesterday evening when we decided to stop by Free Range Brewing on a whim and A Bao Time was serving up eats from their truck.
We ordered a bunch to sample and just waited in excitement since everything on the menu looked/​sounded delicious. Started off with an order of the Avocado Hush Puppies and an order of the Filipino Lumipa (tiny egg rolls). The hush puppies, made fresh, were warm in the center and crunchy on the outside… just a hint of avocado flavor and a little heat. I can pretty much inhale lumpia by the dozen, but these versions are small enough so that I wouldn’t feel as bad (rolled up tightly and a little larger than the diameter of a cigarette). The lumpia packed a ton of flavor with the dipping sauce.
Had to try a bao, so we selected the sriracha fried chicken bao… SO DELICIOUS… fresh avocado and aoili-​esq sauce on top. The bao was delivered in a «pillow of love»… or some folk just call it a steamed bun, but this one definitely felt like it was radiating a lot of love. The piece de resistance was their special Korean Napoleon (luckily we got the 2^nd to last order). A layered tower of pork belly, enoki mushrooms, fried egg, and some fresh mango, and a sriracha foam on top with a couple of sauces for layers of layers of flavors. Pretty much the equivalent of finding a unicorn, and sticking it in your mouth.
The guys in the truck were working their butts of, but they were very good about giving us expected wait times for their freshly made treats. So glad we stopped by and sampled what they had to offer. I’ll be on the lookout on where these guys stop by next.

These guys are awesome (David, Zach, and Grant) have excellent customer service and make you feel like you’ve known them for awhile. Now to the food… exceptional!!! My first encounter was at Food Truck Friday in Matthews and had the Sriracha Fried Chicken Sticky Buns… my only regret is that I only ordered one set (I needed 5 more). I found them again in front of Pintville and ordered the Kimich Braised Pork Belly and Acacado Hush Puppies! I can’t wait… so yourself a favor and eat here!!!

We stumbled across this food truck after the Panthers beat the Seahawks. (Go Panthers!) They were parked outside of Unknown and we were starving. We had the avocado hush puppies and fried chicken bun. Both really hit the spot and were super tasty! Full of great flavors, piping hot and served up quickly.
I’m having a hard time tracking down the truck (I think they may be new??) but want to go back soon for all the buns!

I was visiting family and came across this food truck accidently. I’ve tried just about everything on the menu. Good portion for the price. I must have eaten about five different baos in less than a week. They’re that good! Definitely check them out! You will not regret it.