Lunch with my partner, of home-steamed frozen char-siu Bao and stir fried vegetables, and a conversation that went a little like this:

• Alec: “…it’s wheat flour, isn’t it?”
• Partner: “Yes, and the combination of steam and dough.”
• A: “Yummy. Hm. Steam. Water. Boiling. I wonder if you could make a boiled Bao, but shaped like a Bagel?”
• P: “What would you fill it with?”
• A: “Not sure. Spicy beef paste, maybe? Pork would be contentious. It would be a bao-bagel. Maybe a ‘baogel’! Ha! Wait, somebody has to have already done this…”

…and so we did a google-search for Baogel and, yes, like most good ideas, someone has had it before, verbatim:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baogel
• https://www.foodbeast.com/news/baogel/
• https://www.thedailymeal.com/cook/meet-baogel-nyc-s-latest-food-hybrid/110917
• https://www.foodandwine.com/news/meet-baogel

…and now I want one.