Restaurant Tue Apr 03 2007

Hot Asian Buns: Downtown

Stacks of stainless steel steamers cooked the "hot Asian buns" mentioned on the outside window of Wow Bao. The glass window of the takeaway cooler displayed the campy text, "Take Me. Heat Me. Eat Me." Someone offering expedient service wrote our order on a clipboard. After navigating the line, my pal Rose and I mixed peanut sauce into the noodles it came with. The sauce ran thin but packed a touch of heat. Our vegetable potstickers and dumplings (so far as I could tell, the steamed version of the pan-fried potstickers) included a few nicely crunchy bits inside. These ran out quicker than their dipping sauces (a yellow sauce with more horseradish-style burn than mustard flavor, one sweet and another spicy), so we each picked one to help kick up the noodles. "Fresh ginger ale" snapped of fresh ginger, hibiscus iced tea smoothly refreshed, and both came lightly sweetened, just as I think they should. A side of coconut almond crunch finished the meal with everything the snack's name claims, plus a hint of caramel. One downside: our meal, even ordering it "for here," contained more plastic containers than I care to think about.

Steamers for buns

Taking an order

"hot asian buns" in lowercase

Take Me. Heat Me. Eat Me.

Location visited: 175 W. Jackson Blvd., (312) 334-6395
Additional location: 835 N. Michigan Ave., (312) 642-5888

— Chris Brunn / Comments (3)