They served ‘adult Happy Meals’
May Chow, Asia’s Best Female Chef 2017, likens collaborating with Your Local’s chef Pat Go to a concert.
“I wanted to do a duet. To me, it was like a music tour. It’s like singing people’s favorite hits and going to their homes,” she told Lifestyle.
Chow brought some items from Little Bao’s menu to Your Local in their Manila pop-up, which happened for four nights last week. One way to measure a concert’s success is the number of tickets sold. The Hong Kong chef’s famous buns attracted at least 500 local diners. It was a sold-out event.
“I was inspired by Taylor Swift. It’s one thing to eat it in Hong Kong, but eating it in your hometown is also good. So we wanted to come here and pay respect and our dues to everyone who has supported us,” she said.
Chow said that a lot of their patrons in Hong Kong come from the Philippines. Little Bao is a favorite among Filipino foodies, as seen in the number of TikToks and YouTube videos about it. This visit was her way of saying thank-you to their Filipino customers.
“In order to connect, you don’t have to have a physical shop. You can come back regularly and attend a special collaboration. I could come and have my concert every year and give my best,” she said.
She brought in her essentials to make sure she delivered what was expected of her. She and her team made hundreds of buns, had them frozen, before their flight to Manila.
“We made it fresh on the morning of our flight. We really had to make the perfect baos in a new environment, so we wanted to make it as we do it in Hong Kong,” she said. “It’s the humidity, temperature and there are so many details to make the perfect baos. From our experience it’s better to bring them in.”
The rest were sourced locally. The meat and all the ingredients were provided by Your Local’s kitchen in Makati.
Element of fun
The menu included Pork Char Siu Bao, Schezuan Mala Fried Chicken, LB Caesar, Stir-fried Beef Noodles Fries and Go’s Pinoy Polvoron and Calamansi served bao style. The food was offered as sets and included a choice of cocktails, namely Lychee Yuzu G&T, Shiso High Ball 2.0 and mocktails such as Yuzu Maple Soda and Guavalada.
“Little Bao is an adult Happy Meal. It allows us to be creative, tell our culture and talk about the things we grew up with. It tells us about the story of the things we love. It’s very child-like,” Chow explained.
Go said that this element of fun is what he and Chow share. Your Local is all about serving fun food for diners. His dessert was Toasted Milk Ice Cream sandwiched by crispy buns.
“The flavor profile that Chef Pat delivers is international and delicious …Then integrating the Filipino twist, the acidity and the layering of flavors, is always important because I love culture. You want to bring something different but understand what makes people’s palate happy,” Chow said, adding she found Go to be kind.
The visiting chef met with a lot of chefs during this trip, including chef Margarita Forés, who brought Chow and Chow’s wife, singer-songwriter Joya, lechon. Chow enjoyed Forés’ crab fat and said that she would love to bring home Guimaras’ artisanal salt tultul.
