Bao Bei, 12015 Rockville Pike, Rockville
Taiwanese Marylanders—or any regular explorers of the Rockville Pike food scene—will likely recognize most of the dishes on the menu at Bao Bei, though they’re under new names.
The Bao Bei Bao is a gua bao, a classic Taiwanese pork belly bun on a pillowy soft bao (here, it’s also available with tofu). The Bao Bei Bowl is really lu rou fan, Taiwanese braised pork rice with mustard greens— you might have tried it at A&J or Taipei Cafe up the road. Sesame-and-scallion bread is something like shaobing.
“It’s inspired by the food that my grandfather and my mom cooked for me,” chef/owner Kevin Hsieh says. But also: “I’m pretty inspired by fast food, and the power of nostalgia that fast food chains brought me when I was a kid.”
Hsieh will open Bao Bei—originally a ghost kitchen—as a brick-and-mortar shop in Rockville’s Montrose Crossing development on Wednesday, August 27.
Hsieh was born and raised in Rockville, and eventually returned to the DMV through a job as a financial analyst for a defense and aerospace contractor, which he found too dull to handle: “I always felt this dread of boredom everyday that I went to work, regardless of how well work went.”
Coming from a family of chefs—Hsieh’s father actually worked at Taipei Cafe, among many other eateries—food came naturally to him. So he decided to adapt the Taiwanese comfort foods of his youth into a fast casual concept. First, he ran Bao Bei as a stand at food festivals, before taking over a ghost kitchen space hidden in a Rockville warehouse. Hsieh eventually became a finalist on the 17th season of the Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race last year.
Many of Hsieh’s specialties come with the burnished hue and rich sweet-and-savory flavor of Taiwanese braising. Along with bao buns and rice bowls topped with braised pork, tofu, and eggs, though, the new Bao Bei also serves sides like cucumber-and-wood-ear-mushroom salad; sweets such as swirly brown sugar buns; and an XL fried chicken cutlet dredged in sweet-potato starch.
Hsieh’s approach is all about quick comfort. “Our food is very, very prep heavy, but you don’t see the prep,” the chef says. “Everything takes a long time, but it’s ready to serve right away.”
