From bhaji-filled burgers to Filipino street food, London’s foodies have impressed investors on every episode of this series of BBC’s My Million Pound Menu.
The show seeks out up-and-coming stars of the food world and offers them the chance to secure hundreds of thousands of pounds of investment, and the last episode saw yet another Londoner triumph.
Asian-fusion food concept Tiger Bites beat competition in the Grab-And-Go round from Burmese Kitchen and Really Rice, both of whom are also based in London.
Were you salivating over Tiger Bites’s buns and chomping at the bit for its chicken all through the programme? If you want to know where to get your chops around those bao, this is everything you need to know about the Taiwanese bun slingers.
What is Tiger Bites?
Tiger Bites is a food concept that takes traditional Taiwanese bao – fluffy white rice buns – and fills them with Western influenced flavours. Scott de Lima, 29, and Lacey Miles, 28, are the pair behind the Asian fusion venture, who founded the company in 2017, when still a couple; they split early last year but remained friends to keep Tiger Bites going. De Lima comes from a marketing background, while Miles gained experience as a private chef while working in childcare. The pair discovered a love for bao buns in Berlin after travelling together.
What’s on the Tiger Bites menu?
Tiger Bites do baos as you’ve never seen them before. The buns are bigger – more akin to a burger – and all come deep-filled either with free range fried chicken or vegan-friendly crispy seitan tofu. On top of the protein diners can try a selection of American-influenced, pun-tastic flavour combinations.
The “Katsu Outside, How Bao Dat?” bun features Japanese curry sauce and panko breadcrumbs, while the “Peanut Butter and Jelly” topping includes sticky satay sauce, sweet chilli jam and crushed nuts. Tiger Bites’ signature dish is the spicy "Kung Fu Panda" which includes burger sauce, sriracha, coriander, chilli and black sesame. Hungry types can also grab sides including Kung Fu loaded fries, popcorn chicken, kimchi slaw and chips in curry sauce. Every item on the menu is available either as a vegan or non-vegan option.
Where to find Tiger Bites in London
You may know Tiger Bites from recent residencies at the now-closed Birthdays in Dalston and The Old Nun’s Head in Nunhead, as well as popping up at festivals and street food markets across the capital. Following on from its My Million Pound Menu appearance, Tiger Bites is now set to take over the kitchen at Shoreditch newcomer Rotate, a cafe and cycling boutique. Tiger Bites will be running the kitchen there for three months, excluding Mondays, kicking things off from Friday February 15 and serving both eat-in and takeaway. On the first night, the first 100 customers at Rotate after 5pm will be treated to a free bao bun and a free drink each. Following investment from Deliveroo founder Will Shu, Tiger Bites is now also available on the app within approximately a two-and-a-half mile radius of Whitechapel.
For more about the winners of My Million Pound Menu, click here.
The final episode of My Million Pound Menu airs on Tuesday February 19, 8pm, BBC Two.
