My two favorite dishes at Momofuku were the rice cakes and the steamed buns.  The rice cakes are way to complicated for me right now so my friend Jerome and I tried the steamed pork belly buns from David Chang’s new cookbook.  They were a little more tame and definitely doable.  I would say that the Momofuku cookbook is a good investment and a lot of the stuff in it seems easy to cook at home.

The recipe for the buns is simple.  First, the pork belly.  We used Marin Sun Farms belly that we bought from Berkeley Bowl West.  It was perfect, very fatty (I would be worried if my pork belly wasn’t fatty) and cheap.  Here’s what you do with the pork:

• use about 3 lbs
• place the pork in a pan about the size of the hunk of pork and rub it with about 1/4 cup of salt and 1/4 cup of sugar
• cover the top with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 6 hours – I wouldn’t exceed 12 because it gets really salty if you leave it for a whole day
• heat your oven to 450 degrees
• pour out any liquid in the pan and then cook the belly fat side up for 1 hour, basting half way through
• turn the oven down to 250 degrees and cook for about another hour or until the meat is tender but not mushy
• move the belly to a plate and save the fat in a jar or something to use for cooking other stuff later on (like eggs, or chicken… mmmmmmm)
• once it’s cool, wrap it in foil and refrigerate it until its chilled — then you can cut it into 1/4 to 1/2 inch by 2 ince slices more easily when you’re ready to make the buns

Chang suggested (not personally) that I buy the buns because they are super time consuming to make and will probably end up tasting exactly the same as frozen ones.  I picked up a few packages of 12 for about 2.50 a package at Ranch 99 down at the Pacific East Mall off of I-80.  Use the brand in the picture below – they’re delish and the type you want: half folds.  Basically, you want to steam the buns once you’ve completely finished making the meat, for about 8 minutes or until they are soft and hot and steamy in a triple steamer.

The pickles are also a very easy David Chang/Momofuku recipe.  He calls them 20 minute pickles.  I let them set a little longer than 20 minutes but they taste about the same either way.  To make them, you simple slice up some cucumbers, radishes, carrots and daikon into about 1/8 to 1/4 inch slices.  Put them into a bowl and add a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar and keep seasoning them and letting them sit for about 10 minutes at a time until they taste right – like pickles.  I poured out the excess liquid before storing them.  They keep very well so they can be prepared in advance, like the meat.

When you’re ready to make the buns, cut the meat into pieces, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch by 2 inch slices and heat in pan to warm them up – just a minute or two.  Meanwhile, steam the buns.  When they’re ready, take them out of the steamer and flop them open.  Spread some hoisin sauce on one side and cover with a chunk of meat.  Put a few pickles on the other side, fold back up and serve, preferably in a bamboo steaming box for visual pleasure.  Serve with Siracha or similar hot sauce.

This recipe is from David Chang’s AWESOME cookbook, Momofuku.  Yeah, I’m on it. Can you blame me?