Yes I know, I’m a trained chef, butcher, and a pork aficionado but this past weekend was the first time that I had set foot into a David Chang establishment. Shame on me! Nevertheless, I must let you know that the hype I’ve been hearing about him was worth it. First off the steamed pork buns, yes this is old news for you, but wow! From a culinary point of view it was absolutely phenomenal, everything in that dish was seasoned superbly. I used to buy the prepared steam’em-yourself-pork-buns from your local Asian market, which merely satisfied my appetite. But the Momofuku Noodle Bar steamed pork bun is out of this world! With your run of the mill, DIY bun from the market the bread is insipid and doughy, but with the Chang innovation it was warm, light, fluffy, and semi-sweet. The slow roasted pork stuffed inside was deliciously seasoned, the accompanying sauce hit the major pleasure points on your palate; sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. Honestly, my dining partner, Jessica, was lucky I didn’t fly across the table in sea gull fashion and snatch the rest of her bun right out of her hand!
The next course was a test of my manhood, the bowl of Momofuku ramen. The dish had a generous amount of crispy shredded pork, wonderfully seasoned pork belly, an extraordinarily liberal pinch of sliced scallions, a charitable weight in noodles, and a fantastic, poached egg which once stirred into the quart of broth created a beautifully viscous soup.
The meal did have a down-side to it, the “7” spice potato chips, bluntly said, they weren’t tasty. They just didn’t seem to hold on to the “7” spices. The chips were however fried to a perfectly golden hue with a memorable crispness.
On my next visit I have to try the shitake steamed buns, and hopefully they’ll have the bowl of pork belly ramen
