New Hipster Hawker Stall Serves Burgers Garnished With Bak Kwa From $6

Though bak kwa is one of the most beloved Chinese New Year goodies, it’s rarely eaten outside the festive season. Hence, the owner of Wang Bao Bao, a 30-something who “comes from a finance background” and wishes to remain anonymous, decided to marry the snack with burgers and fries, so customers can enjoy it throughout the year. He has a team of staff to do the cooking here.

There are five types of brioche burgers and four honey bak kwa buns made with hotdog rolls, with prices starting from $6 and $3.50 respectively. While Wang Bao Bao offers a meat-free crispy beancurd and deep-fried shimeji burger ($6), you will not find any beef on the menu as it “does not complement [well with] the bak kwa flavour”. Customers can top up $1 for a side of fries.

Like some bak kwa with your fries? Try the zhng-ed Dirty Fries ($5), which comes with pork floss, honey bak kwa bits and cheese sauce, or Naughty Fries ($5), which is topped with crispy onion, parmesan cheese, and honey bacon bits. We sample some of the dishes.

Think of this as a pimped up version of KFC’s Zinger. This Thai-inspired creation comes with a thick slab of fried chicken thigh dressed with slightly spicy sriracha aioli, an onsen egg, sandwiched between fluffy brioche buns. The chicken is brined overnight and coated in a batter consisting of close to 10 ingredients. Though we dug into the burger an hour after it was delivered, the fried chook was still juicy and crispy, and its flavour melded nicely with the smoky, sweet bak kwa draped on top of the chicken. You might want to skip this if you’re on a date though, as it can get super messy.

This hearty burger is for pork lovers. There’s char-grilled Spanish pork belly char siew, streaky honey bacon bak kwa, and pork floss, all perched atop a bed of carrot and cucumber pickles, and finished with an onsen egg for added decadence. Wang Bao Bao makes the char siew from scratch. Pork belly is marinated overnight with ginger, hoisin sauce, brown sugar and other spices before it is slow-baked in the oven for two and a half hours.

Though flavourful, the char siew was tad dry and not the melt-in-your-mouth variety we’d hoped for. We also found the skin rubbery and the sweet teriyaki-like glaze a little too intense, overpowering the flavours of the bak kwa and pork floss.

The press release states that this burger is a nod to the well-loved Ramly burger, but with a tropical twist. Well, vaguely. Apart from the egg and black pepper-spiked mayo, this is nothing like the Ramly burger. Which is not exactly a bad thing. The Rum & Lee consists of grilled chicken patty wrapped with a thin omelette, honey bacon bak kwa, grilled pineapple, and sliced cucumber and cabbage dressed in a house-made mayo. The “rum” comes in the form of a splash of dark rum on the yummy sausage-like patty for a smoky-sweet hit. We like it with the sweet pineapple, which cuts through the richness of the burger.

The inside of a toasted hotdog roll is dipped lightly into egg batter a la roti john before it is grilled again and stacked with a slice of bak kwa, generous topping of pork floss and cucumber slices. Not bad as a tea time snack, though we couldn’t taste the egg.

According to Wang Bao Bao’s PR rep, the dish is named so as it’s an indulgent treat for cheat days. A generous portion of nicely-fried shoestring fries are topped with crispy battered onion, parmesan cheese, honey bak kwa bacon bits and slathered with slightly spicy sriracha mayo. Very addictive.

The Dirty Fries, however, were pretty underwhelming. We’re not fans of the garish orange cheese sauce; moreover, the pork floss made the dish dry.

Bottom line:

Some hits and misses, but overall pretty decent fusion burgers if you love bak kwa. Sure, it’s a little gimmicky, but the pairing is a refreshing change if you’re looking for something beyond the usual beef burgers. And the affordable prices are a plus.

Wang Bao Bao is at #01-140, Blk 122 Bedok North St 2, S460122. Open daily 10am-9pm. Facebook Instagram

Photos: Wang Bao Bao