Momofuku Noodle Bar - Manhattan, New York

Have you had an experience that made you say, “Oh my God. This is everything I thought it would be?” There are few things that can, especially when that thing has been hyped to excess like Momofuku’s pork buns have been.

But not only did it meet my heightened expectations, it blew my mind and overwhelmed my mouth and brain with sweet, sultry piggy bliss. It also confirmed David Chang’s badass-ness and became the one thing that I will remember from this, my third New York trip.

A week before, I said to my officemates that I was going to the Big Apple for my birthday to eat something expensive and fatty. At $5 a pop and the fact that I was essentially eating hog blubber, Momofuku’s pork buns certainly met both criteria.

It didn’t melt. No, that would be too easy. The pork belly is cooked in such a way that it retains a texture close to a falling apart brisket, soft and moist, but also still holding onto its meaty integrity.

Meanwhile, the fat has turned into something close to jelly—firm, warm, insanely good jelly that kind of fills your senses with the savoriness of pork fat and that gets wiped clean by the pillowy fluff of the bread, the crunchy-cool pickled cucumbers. It was…un-friggin-believable.

The bowl of ramen I had as a main course afterward didn’t have any hope of competing. This piggy foreplay was way better than the noodle intercourse.

Momofuku Noodle Bar
171 1st Ave
(between 10th St & 11th St)
New York, NY 10003
(212) 777-7773
momofuku.com

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