Street food favourite Bao Selecta is getting ready to open its first permanent stall in no other than the iconic food hot spot of Cardiff Market.
Run by Nick Spann and his wife Karolina, Bao Selecta - as the name suggests - specialises in Taiwanese street food and sells bao buns, which is a type of steamed white bun that is fluffy, warm and sweet and made from flour, yeast, sugar baking powder and oi that is then crammed with a range of fillings.
Having started the business part-time after testing out his bao buns on friends proved a success, Nick and Karolina soon began making appearances at various food festivals before the pair decided to put their all into building Bao Selecta as a business in 2019.
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Since, Nick and Karolina have been regulars on the street food circuit, regularly serving up their pork belly, Szechuan fried chicken, popular crispy seitan 'beef' and jackfruit bao buns at places like Cardiff's street food haunt, Sticky Fingers, where they've had a residency five times, and Street Food Circus' events - catch them at SFC's Forest Feastival in April and May and have a read of what we thought of it here - it's only natural that a more permanent stall for the 2020 People's Choice Award winners is the next step.
Nick added: "We started in 2016, popping up at local markets, food festivals like Bite Cardiff and Street Food Circus as well as catering events and weddings - but it was in December, 2019, I actually decided to quit my day job and to focus on the business completely.”
“We all know what happened in March, 2020, but we used that time to hone our craft, making hundreds of takeaway bao buns at home from our kitchen.”
Once lockdown eased and life resumed to some normality, with catering and foodie festivals back in full swing, Nick, it seems, set his sights on Cardiff Market, a food mecca that he described as a "true cross-section of the city". The Shropshire-born Bao Selecta founder said: "Cardiff Market continues to evolve. I love the diversity of the stalls - from the local cafes and the record shop, to the psychic, and everything that’s inbetween! It’s a true cross-section of the city."
For its first stall, which will be situated on the ground floor of the market at stall 39, Bao Selecta will be offering a vegan-only menu that will include its popular (and award-winning) dish of a crispy seitan 'beef' bao bun - among other things. It will be open between Tuesday and Saturday and from 11:30am until 2:30pm will be feeding the hungry punters of Cardiff with its steam bao buns and a whole new menu of delicious sounding rice bowls.
Speaking of bringing Bao Selecta to such a renowned foodie hangout, Nick said: "We didn’t want to step on any toes of what is already on offer in the market, but with our seitan crispy beef already being our best seller - we decided to go completely vegan for our stall.
"I’m not vegan myself but I’ve loved developing this menu, and it makes sense as it means everyone can enjoy our food. Most people don’t even realise our crispy beef bao buns are vegan - we’ve even had a rugby team say it was the best beef they’ve ever tasted! This new stall is a really exciting step for us and provides a permanent venue with the flexibility for us to offer seasonal specials throughout the year.”
Bao Selecta hopes to open its stall to the people of Cardiff in the week commencing March 20. Keep your eyes peeled! For more information, see its website.
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