Friday, October 21, 2016

De’ Bao: steamed bun sandwiches


Hi All,
Welcome to De' Bao!
TGIF. Friday night, always hot and ready for action! I’m referring to eating action [ and side action ;) ]
I pick you!
If you read through my blog, you’ll know a few of my favorite things to eat:
  • Desserts – any kind, anywhere, almost any price
  • Dim sum
  • Italian/European/American
  • Korean
  • Japanese

The reason I heart dim sum is for the BAO. I love steam buns! Juicy, plump buns….guys, get your mind outa that side action gutter. I shouldn’t have mentioned that.
new Korean style cuteness
I’m all ‘bout the bao, ‘bout the bao, no pan/bread. [to the hit song All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor]

It’s all about the Bao. I can even eat plain ones as a snack. After I spotted De’ Bao on Phnom Penh’s 2016 cheap eats, I knew I had to drag someone to try it out with me.
keep smiling even on a rainy day
It was raining all afternoon, the evening I ventured to BKK1. My GPS pointed me in the right direction but I couldn’t find the De’ Bao’s sign. After doing a U-ee, I spotted a flat that looked like an eatery (and correctly guessed it to be the place). Entrepreneurs, if you want to be accessible, make sure your logo can be seen at night with BIG letters. Seriously, dark + rain + glasses = almost drove away to eat something else. Don’t lose customers this way.
my tsunami angel wings
I forewarn you, the pics on their FB page doesn’t meet my taste expectation. The drool worthy pics left my tongue wishing for more. Another table next to me left early without finish their food. After having a light snack here, I continued to Koh Pich to eat papaya salad and chicken wings.

Let’s just get to the details.


Space: Small. About 5 couple seating, one long table for about 12-14, a sofa for a few friends.
welcome~ what can i get you?
Atmosphere: Another cute shop, good photo op as you can see!

Service: Alright, but more to be desired.

Taste: I love bao. Some were hits and some were misses. See below for details. Would I come here again? Probably not.
comfy couch for relaxing time
Parking: Street parking kiddo. Prepare to bring a motorbike.

Photop: Great place for a photop. As you can see from this post, isn't it just dreamy? That evening I channeled beauty model and totally feel this is magazine spread worthy. AGREE?
too old to be a model, now a food blogger
Disturbed: Their FB page had a cured egg on the pulled pork bao but never to customers.

Enjoyed:

I decided to get the recommended box set that came with a free soda. The box set was $7 + 10% VAT. Counting down to my favorite:
served steamed and ready
  • Mambo number 5: Shrimp Bao
I actually didn’t try this because I’m allergic to seafood. But it looked like a deep fried shrimp with mayonnaise in a bao.
pretending to eat the shrimp
  • Number four, four, four, four: Pork Belly Bao
I also didn’t eat this because I’m not a fan of pork belly. It was a chunk of pork with sauce on top.
pork belly bao
  • Lucky Number 3: Fried Chicken Bao
Fried chicken is fried chicken. It’s like any other fried chicken burger except a) smaller and b) more expensive. Middle of the line; not impressive.
crispy chicken drenched in special sauce
  • Close to being the best but fell short, Number 2: Pulled Pork Bao
I really liked the tender, easy to pull apart pulled pork bao. The only qualm I have is that there’s no cured egg like the picture. Where’s my house special cured egg?!?!
pulled pork in my belly
  • Best of the night, Number 1: Bao Ger
It's a mini burger. Meat was succulent, delicious sauce, and bao encompassing. Yumo.
Bao Ger with a looootttt of sauce

My take: twist on the classic bao. Try it UNO if you wanna experience it.


Address: #49, St 288, BKK 1, Phnom Penh, Cambodia (near Monivong Blvd’s Por Kei Chinese restaurant, same street as Champs Elysee’s KTV entrance)  
Specs: 11am to 8pm, a flat shop so be prepared to do street parking
 
follow meeeeeeee, V!

Thank you for the support! Please follow me 0=)

Let me know your thoughts. Shout it out in the comments below.

Thanks for reading.

XoXo V
* Sunny Up with V *

If you would like me to visit your place, let me know! I’m more than happy to check out and eat your delicious food =)

menu
Bao bao bao!



Thursday, October 6, 2016

Be.k: softer and better than real snow, the bingsu experience

Hi All,
Moi at Be.k
I’m pumped from my last article and ready to blog about what I ate during the Bchum Ben holiday. Thank you for the support! Please follow me 0=)

Do you have childhood memories of shaved ice? I certainly do.

In the summer days of many years past, I lived a carefree life playing all day and chasing ice cream trucks. Sometimes, I hear Mister honking the horn. HONK, HONK; honk, honk. I run down two flights of stairs to catch up with Mister. Mister sells shaved ice. Surrounded by grubby children hands, asking him to take their orders. He would hand shave from a large block of ice into a cone. Then, you can pick the sweet flavous to add on top. That’s a snowcone, folks.
I also remember the Asian shaved ice. It’s covered in siro, condensed milk, and toppings (like boba, fruits, red bean, etc.). Still my favorite on a hot day. I haven’t had one of these for awhile. By golly, the last time was April during the Cambodian New Year. We went to Angkor Wat to join the festivities. A few of the gals walked to the nearby temple to take photos. Another friend and I got shaved ice instead and just.stood.there eating. Then we walked like 10M => saw another shaved ice stand => and asked them to top us off. They were confused but did it for us anyway. Afterwards we were creepers that stared as people ate at the food stall with our shaved ice hahaha. It was just THAT hot.
And being hot works for bingsu. Bingsu is a popular shaved ice dessert from Korea that’s new in Cambodia. I was skeptical to try it….mainly for the price. Justifying to myself ice being worth X amount of dollars was a bit tough. Also, Cambodia had other shaved ice/ice cream (like the Taiwanese one) and I thought bingsu was like this to.
Taiwanese style
Actually, I was wrong. Bingsu is not just ice. It was like a delicate snowflake melting in my mouth. I literally have no clue how it became so soft and how they’d mixed the flavors into the bingsu. And really, I don’t care how it came about but it has BORN into my life! I love how finely shaved the ice was. I love how the flavors were all encompassing already without feeling that it’s a separate entity from one another. Condense milk, snow ice, fruits, cheesecake, etc. rolled onto my tongue like ecstasy candy. After that first bite, it justified the cost alright. Everything I knew about shaved ice changed.
sweet already, no need for extra milk
Scrolling through their FB, this caught my attention:

Be.k HAPPY U !!!
You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy bingsu. And that’s kind of the same thing <3 <3

I accept the happiness you give me
Clap clap clap [my hands are clapping]

Facebook, why did you have to be so right?!? You’re always tempting me with delectable sweets. And now, I’m trying to convince people to eat there again on a rainy day.
choose your fave~
Space: Wow, airy 2 floors with high ceiling. I opted to sit on the 2nd floor so I could enjoy the view. Felt like a tropical bird perched on a high tree (it’s woodsy upstairs and spacious downstairs).

Service: Acceptable; it’s new.

Taste: Enjoyed BUT I have to make a huge sidebar.
*Sidebar: Getting pumped from seeing their menu, I was upset when it arrived on our table. I ordered the mango cheesecake bingsu. #1 fault: the spacing between mango and cheesecake was too wide and not plentiful like the pictures. #2 fault: it wasn’t the ripe mango that’s supposed to go with binsu. It was [deathly] Cambodian green slightly sour mango. They attribute because they ran out. That’s never an excuse for me. It should have been informed to me earlier. Not delivering what’s shown is not acceptable to me. Especially if you’re a brand-name from overseas like Korea.

Parking: It’s ok, pretty decent. Didn’t have a problem when I went in the afternoon.

Upsetting: Browsing through the FB page I noticed they have a stamp card. I WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THIS. If they gave them freely to customers, I think they would attract more people to come back. Someone like me, wants to fill it up to get that free item.

Bonus round: Be.k is on the same street as (newly opened) Sushi Chef, Bonchon, BBQ Chicken [in that order!] and across the street is MoMo Paradise Steamboat and Dance Bakery. Seriously it’s a 4 in 1 win. Happy eating! May the odds be ever in your favor. [Did you catch my Hunger Game’s Effie Trinket persona?]

Bingsu enjoyed: Mango and Cheesecake bingsu – regular size
kamsamnida! [KR thank you]
Shared with 2 other friends, it’s a good dessert for 3. Split between us was $2 each. Not bad.
always fun with the gals
I wished it was the ripe sweet mango. If it was, I would be a happy camper. I’m not giving us on this place. I’ve heard the chocolate strawberry is good. I’ll let you know once I go there again.

Be.k also serves food such as toast, chicken wings, pasta, mini burgers, etc. I didn’t try them yet. Feel free to browse their FB page because they look cute.

Alas, my photographer wasn’t with me so please enjoy these phone photos.

My take: try, share, and selfie with the dessert


Address: #16, St 306, BKK 1, Phnom Penh, Cambodia  
Specs: open until 10pm!

location is important
Let me know your thoughts. Shout it out in the comments below.

Thanks for reading.

XoXo V
* Sunny Up with V *

If you would like me to visit your place, let me know! I’m more than happy to check out and eat your delicious food =)

it's calling you