What’s in a name?

It has been 3 months since we changed our little lunch bar into a Bao bar. Reflecting on that time and looking at my Instagram feed I can confirm one thing: I’m horrible at marketing!

In all seriousness, social media isn’t really my thing. I’m quite a private person and I’ve always faced the struggle of whether I should be “in the moment” or capture it. There are so many moments during this journey I wish I could share. However, I often find myself just enjoying them and letting them pass.

Punishment is tough at the Bao Bar and usually (at least for my Dad) involves getting bitten by the boss.

That’s why I decided to start doing these little blogs. If you ask me to schedule posts, plan stories for peak exposure, take photos 24/7 then you might as well put me in an asylum because I will definitely go crazy. But if you tell me to write about what my experience has been like and reflect on what I have learnt or experienced…. I think I can do that 😉.

A lot of people ask us why we are called “Elim Bao Bar”. Firstly, thinking of a name can be pretty hard. Even harder when you have Asian parents and have to veto names like “Rainbow Bao” or “Best Bao” (There were a lot of vetos). Eventually though a name came by that made sense and connected to us in some way. The name came to my mother, a devout Christian, when she was reflecting on a verse in the bible. It’s a short verse, in fact if you blinked you would miss it:

Exodus 15 : 27

“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.”

That’s it! Nothing fancy, just that one sentence. But if you knew the background behind this verse you would understand its importance. You see Exodus tells the story of the Israelites as they fled from the Egyptians to seek their promised land. It was at the oasis of Elim that they rejuvenated themselves. I like to think that the idea of the Bao Bar was like an oasis in the desert of uncertainty. Flour, water and yeast were our springs and palm trees.

Or how like an oasis in the desert our shop is situated in a pretty random place, but like the oasis it’s a spot that you can drop by and refresh yourself before you continue on your journey. I think this photo we took at night really captures that feeling:

 Anyway now you know where our name came from and can stop asking if we are related to the Bible college ;)