Chinese street food sweeps London – bao, chicken feet, Hong Kong egg waffles – and moves indoors
- Young entrepreneurs from China, Taiwan and the UK have brought classic snacks to London, and have taken premises in some of its most upscale neighbourhoods
- Some have adapted their fare for British palates, others have stuck to tradition; what they have in common is an affinity for promotion on social media
The humble Hong Kong egg waffle, transformed into an opulent dessert, has been a surprise hit with Londoners, who are showing an increasing appetite for regional Chinese street food. So much so that businesses are migrating from market stalls to bricks-and-mortar restaurants located in some of the British capital’s smartest districts.
Bubblewrap, which sells the waffles in a sleek-looking shop in Soho, Central London, is the brainchild of business partners Sunny Wu and Tony Fang.
Sweet, milky egg batter is cooked on cast iron griddles with spherical indentations. The result is a circular, golden waffle with a crispy exterior and soft, squidgy middle – a delicious treat that has been popular on the streets of Hong Kong for more than half a century.
The Bubblewrap team folds the traditional egg waffle (gai daan jai) into a funnel and fills it with ice cream, sauces, fruit, chocolate chunks or biscuits.
Bubblewrap opened in 2017 and its waffles were an instant hit. Police initially had to erect barricades to manage the queues of customers. Then a video about the snack went viral online, gaining more than 20 million views, and the visually appealing dessert has since become an Instagram sensation.
“I grew up on Hainan Island in the south of China. We did not have these waffles when I was a child,” says Wu. “And my business partner and co-founder Tony is from Zhejiang province, where they were not well known either. But in the last five years, I would say, they have become popular all over mainland China. I’ve always been interested in food and marketing, so we decided to start a business selling waffles.”