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Behold This Golden Christmas Turkey Made Entirely of Steamed Dough

Taiwanese bunslingers Bao went all out for fashion designer Simone Rocha

Bao’s bao turkey, stuffed with deep-fried mince pies Bao [Official Photo]

Christmas turkey, but make it fashion

Essential London restaurant Bao — winner of this year’s Eater London Award for best restaurant design, in Borough — has always been cutting-edge, progressing from a coveted Netil Market stall to one of the most inventive, playful, deeply cool restaurant groups in the city. That rep has now captured the attention of fashion designer Simone Rocha, who held her Christmas party at the Borough restaurant and was greeted by this bronzed, emoji-emulating Christmas turkey, fashioned entirely of Bao. Inside? Deep-fried mince pies.

Yes Christmas party food always runs the risk of being pretty tired; yes the London restaurant industry’s devotion to novelty dishes and ~food holidays~ usually leads to cutesy, small-scale afterthoughts. What’s most striking about this golden Christmas turkey made entirely of bao, other than it being a golden Christmas turkey made entirely of bao, is that it has a distinctive visual identity. It is patently non-naturalistic, looking nothing like a real turkey, but also uncanny in its thingness, in making something digital and flat — an emoji — flesh, with the same energy as a still from a 1970s BBC2 broadcast, specifically Ways of Seeing (1972) by John Berger. It’s a crowdpleasing symbol speaking in the distinct vernacular of the place that serves it: everything restaurant Christmas food ought to be.

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Bao

83 Rue De La Gauchetière Ouest, Ville-Marie, QC H2Z 1C2 (514) 875-1388

Rum Kitchen

Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, London, W1B 5PW Visit Website