Wow Bao, Chicago

Greetings from the windy city! For those of you living in America, hope you are enjoying Thanksgiving weekend. We arrived here on Wednesday for H's cousins' reunion. 17 of us have piled on at his eldest cousin sister's home in Aurora, a suburb of Chicago which is supposed to have one of the best school districts in the nation. When looking to relocate anywhere in the U.S. based on your kids' schooling needs, follow the desi trail to the zipcodes that have the best public schools and you can't go wrong.

We drove to downtown Chicago yesterday. Some of our cousins had never been so were excited to take in as many sights and sounds they could on a freezing cold evening. It was 20 degrees fahrenheit and flurrey when we drove in. Our first stop was the mega Borders bookstore on Michigan Avenue for some cappucinos, masala chais and hot chocolate to warm us up. the 2nd floor had a pretty impressive food section and I was dying linger on but everyone else wanted to go clothes and shoes shopping so I allowed myself to be dragged along to the Water Tower Place, one of the nicest shopping malls in downtown.

I noticed Wow Bao the minute we walked in to the Water Tower Place. A wonderfully inviting aroma of garlic, ginger and sesame stir-fried foods wafted in the air. Upon close inspection I discovered that one could take-out steamed buns filled with meat and vegetables, spicy pad thai noodles, rice bowls, soups and salads. Steamed buns are the Chinese version of bread made from flour and yeast except that they are almost always filled with something delicious. I loved the green vegetable bun I ordered along with a glass of Hibiscus Lemonade.



Wow Bao is a fantastic modern concept for Chinese takeout. I'm really looking forward to Wow Bao spreading its wings soon to Manhattan.