Bringing Taiwanese street food to Dunedin!

Having grown up on the hustling and bustling streets of central Taipei city, Yen is no stranger to the tastes and sounds of the local street market. In 2020, she decided to team up with her partner Charles to spice up Dunedin with Taiwanese street food. With both their mix of Asian and European culinary experiences, Little Yen’s brings you one-of-a-kind exotic food experiences.

Little Yen's star offering is the most iconic of Taiwan’s street food, Gua Bao - a mouthwatering delight that combines the softest steamed buns with a range of delectable fillings: 

 - Braised Beef Bao: Tender, succulent beef, braised to perfection and infused with a savory blend of Taiwanese spices, is encased in our fluffy buns. It's a taste of Taiwan's culinary soul.

 - Popcorn Chicken Bao: Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, our popcorn chicken is a flavor explosion. Bite into this Taiwanese favorite wrapped in our soft buns, and you'll understand why it's a street food sensation.

- Tofu Bao: Indulge in our vegan delight that's both flavorful and satisfying. Crispy tofu, lovingly dipped in our homemade sticky garlic soy sauce, finds its cozy spot within our pillowy buns.

- Coffee: Enhance your meal with our indulgent Brown Sugar Latte, a velvety blend crafted from locally brewed coffee beans, creamy whole milk, and a hint of Taiwan's renowned brown sugar for that perfect touch of sweetness.

We enjoy contributing to the Dunedin community and source the majority of our ingredients from local suppliers: Webbers Gourmet Chicken, Holy Cow, Brightside Gourmet Food, Janefield, Bennie's Honey, Catlins Kitchen, Harpoon Cold Brew.

Arriving back to Dunedin with a pile of handwritten notes & fresh new ideas from travels in Taiwan, sitting down with Charles & Yen who own the Little Yen’s food truck, you soon find out how keen they were to realize a dream which was a long time in the making for both of them.  

Yen grew up in the city of Taipei, Taiwan, where hospitality was in her blood spending a childhood being in and around restaurants where her mother worked in accounts & her uncle worked in the kitchens and where she eventually worked front of house.  But Yen, with her adventurous wanderlust spirit wanted to discover the world, so after studying graphic design, moved to Canada for a year then backpacked solo through Central America all the while working, learning and cooking one pot-luck dinner party at a time while living with friends from all around the world.  Meanwhile Charles, born & bred in Dunedin with dreams of being a professional cricketer, studied carpentry and travelled to Sweden where he worked in a Greek food truck for a few years and enjoyed different cultures on the other side of the world.  Long story short, eventually boy meets girl in NZ and they both have the same dream of creating the flavours they have experienced on their travels.  “Being in New Zealand, particularly in Dunedin, can sometimes feel quite isolated from the rest of the world’’, but they found a way to connect back to all the night markets they researched together more recently from the south to north in Taiwan.   

‘’We first heard of Dunedin Poultry (now Webbers Gourmet) on a Saturday morning at Otago Farmers Market in 2022. They have become our reliable supplier of fresh chicken since then. We would catch up every time we went to pick up our order…. Then one day, Steve asked us why we didn’t try to apply for a spot at the market. That was when we started considering offering even more authentic dishes with fresh local ingredients’’.  

Since being part of Otago Farmers Market (they managed to start a family as well in that time!) they both enjoy it as a meeting hub for the community along with other small independent business owners where they can buy fresh ingredients directly - such as their microgreens from Ben at Brightside Gourmet, homemade garlic aioli from Debs at Catlins Kitchen, crunchy lettuce from Rodger at Janefield’s, fresh bean sprouts from Alan & Annie at Jia He, fresh milk from Holy Cow, etc to make with their bao bun menu & made 
from-scratch sauces.   

Customer favourites are the crispy chicken gua bao, Vietnamese coffee made with local Harpoon Cold Brew coffee and condensed milk over ice, followed by the slow cooked braised beef gua bao made with Taiwanese spices.   

The goal of their business was to aim ‘’to offer a unique experience combining the best of local ingredients with authentic Taiwanese and South-East Asian flavours’’ this has made them right at home up on the railway platform at the Otago Farmers Market each Saturday morning & to remind Yen of the flavours of street food back home.  All learnt on the job & the school of life and adventure! 

Nice story aye!