Last updated: June 21, 2023

International Eats

by Travis Mullis

I was in Taipei, Taiwan, for less than 24 hours, but while there I had the best dumplings of my life. I knew I was short on time, so I stuffed as many different types of the flavorful, pillowy bites in my mouth as I could find. It was a gluttonous adventure I will never forget; I will always carry those flavors with me. They set the high standard for every dumpling I have had since, an almost impossible one to live up to. There’s a place in Huntersville, however, that comes close to reaching the Olympian heights of the dumplings I had in Taipei all those years ago. 

BaoBao: Authentic Chinese Cuisine can be easy to miss in the sprawling asphalt desert of Northcross Shopping Center. In a sea of national chains, this little family-run joint is a delicious island. On the smaller side, BaoBao has a nice bar where you can sit and watch the staff make dumplings through a large window. Dumpling making is an art form and it takes years of practice to get so good that you can pump out thousands of identical dumplings at breakneck speed. It’s impressive to watch and almost as fun as eating them.

Start your meal out with an order of the xiao long bao, a Chinese soup dumpling that is traditionally served as breakfast in China but can be enjoyed any time of the day. Six come in an order and they are served in a bamboo steamer. They have the appearance of a small beige volcano and the soup inside can be boiling hot, so maybe give them a minute to cool down before you start chopsticking them into your gullet. Filled with pork and broth, it’s best to poke a hole in the thin dumpling skin and suck out the soup before chowing down on the dumpling and filling, which is made even tastier by dipping it into the soy and vinegar sauce the dish is served with. 

If you are feeling especially gluttonous, start your meal with the sheng jian bao, a large dough bun stuffed with pork meatballs, ginger, and scallions and then pan fried until the bottom is golden brown and crispy, then steamed. There’s a lot of dough in these buns, and after eating an order of them I felt like my stomach had swollen up to the size of a beach ball, so it’s best to share these unless you’re content to make them your meal. 

Alongside traditional hot pot, BaoBao has an extensive Americanized Chinese menu that tastes way better than your typical Chinese take-out joint. Two entrees that stick out for me are the mapo tofu and the walnut shrimp. The tofu is kept soft and served with chunks of crispy pork, scallion, ginger, and garlic and bathed in a spicy Sichuan sauce. I could feel my scalp beginning to sweat about three or four spoonfuls into this dish. By the seventh and eighth spoonfuls, my nose was running and my sinuses were clearing. It’s the best type of spice, though, because pain receptors in your brain respond to the capsaicin in the peppers by releasing large amounts of endorphins in your body. The piquancy of the dish aside, the soft fleshiness of the tofu is a nice contrast to the crunchy bite of the scallions and pork. 

The walnut shrimp is probably the closest thing to what you would expect to find at a traditional American Chinese restaurant. Large shrimp are battered, deep fried, and then covered in a thick honey and mayonnaise sauce. Served with steamed broccoli and festooned with chopped walnuts, this dish is a hearty and satisfying meal that will evoke memories of your favorite Chinese takeout. The best of their sweet and sour dishes is the yuxiang shrimp, a medley of shrimp, broccoli, wood ear mushrooms, and carrots stir fried and served with a small mountain of rice. It is a great choice for someone looking for a comforting, familiar meal. 

The highlights of their drink menu are the various boba teas they make in-house with the help of imported tea powders, tapioca balls, and a blender. I enjoyed watching Chinese television and listening as the staff yelled to each other in Cantonese amid the sounds of flaming woks, the thudding of dumpling dough, and the whirring sounds of the blender. BaoBao seems to be a favorite of the local Chinese community, another good sign that they are doing things like they would if they were in Taipei, or Hong Kong, or Shanghai. 

Charlotte has a lot of great international eats, but is severely lacking in the Chinese department. I’m happy to see BaoBao doing well, especially in an area of the county not often thought to have great international options. BaoBao strikes the right balance between tradition and modernity, offering some of the best Chinese food I’ve had in America. Come hungry and I’ll promise you’ll leave happy.