Hard to believe, but this week, we celebrate our three year anniversary of returning from Singapore and moving to Austin. Mrs. Play Gourmet was 6 months pregnant and we were closing a chapter on what was, at the time, our greatest adventure to date. However, we were only two and a half months away from an even better one.

Looking back on our time, it is easy to recall lots of great memories. There were tons of neat experiences, and what should come as a surprise to no one, the food is one of the fondest.

One thing, that is super cool, but a little strange that we used to get over there is an ice cream sandwich. Doesn’t sound so strange, right? Well, this was literally a sandwich, on white bread!

Kind of crazy, right? Well the white bread actually resembles cake. It helps you hold your ice cream, while supplying a compliment to the ice cream. Two birds, one ice cream sandwich! And the best thing, it was a buck! And there was a stand every couple of blocks.

But the real food was so special. The buns, or bao, were incredible. Super soft, steamed buns filled with bbq pork, soup, custard, you name it.

I can think of no more fitting way to celebrate our move, than to find the food that we miss the most, and introduce it to our little Play Gourmet. Lucky for us, there is a new bao restaurant that has opened up in Austin! Bao’d Up.

Boa’d Up gave us an all-access pass to the kitchen to help take us back in time.

They showed us every step of their bbq pork bao. They roll the meat, and in the steaming process, the buns rise and close around the filling.

Then they walked us through their signature gua bao, which are kind of like bao tacos. These use pork belly.

By now the anticipation is at an all time high.

And we dig in!

For desert we tackle the gua bao, although, you can tell our little Play Gourmet wasn’t sure exactly how he was going to do that at first.

It was a super success! The only loser in this contest was a Captain America t-shirt.

Three years ago, we went from lots of monkey’s to just one, and it was the best trade ever made.