We are creatures of habit, this idea is not new or unfamiliar. The minute we try something new (in this case food) we find some way to incorporate it into our normal routine, whether it is once a month, once a week, or once a day. We rely on it the way some rely on network TV or a cup of coffee in the morning. Often after having one of our favorite meals out, our thoughts tend to drift on the next time we will get to come to said place. It's not uncommon that we frequent a place too often and then have to omit said place for a time being, only noting that it will return in due time. Then there's always a wave of trying said favorite dishes at home, less successful but satisfying none the less. I am most recently a victim of the latter.
After dining on the pork buns of Momofuko for lunch the previous day, I read that he had published his recipe in an issue of Gourmet. After studying this recipe for a few moments I decided it would be worthwhile to fill an evening attempting to make this delicious goodness, especially after I was ridiculed my boyfriend for eating them without him. I'm often accused of doing all the glorious things in life while he's at work. As if I live a second life where I wait to do all the beautiful exciting things.So I did anything that a lovely, wonderful, sweet, sophisticated girlfriend would do I attempted to make them for him the next evening, and make a TON of them. Unfortunately, I also got a call in the middle of the day that they keys that I had been waiting a week for for our new place were ready as well. I had to be there at 5:30. So I let work early went to the post office, hopped on the train, hopped on another train, got on the wrong train, got on the right train going back the other direction and got to where I needed to go. While looking at the new place (awesome by the way) got another call that they are showing my old apartment in 1 hour and my crazy dog is not in his crate. In attempt to stay true to my word and basically slay dragons for my love, we went to a Key Food on Fulton Street. I was hesitant when we went in and to my surprise they actually had many of the items I was in need of cake flour, dehydrated milk, etc. So success. The tricky part was the pork, which upon appearance was a little sketchy. I worked with what I could get. I bought what the store had labeled picnic ham and figured that after I doctored it with a little mustard and brown sugar tied it up and roasted it, it would be sufficient. Overall I spent $16, and that's pretty good. I was worried about one and if I might say the most important key element, the Hoisin sauce. Now for whatever reason Hoisin is always hard to find. It's never made any sense to me, there's a Chinese restaurant on every block and they never sell anything past "Bok Choy" in the supermarket. It's fucked up and wrong if you ask me. So I did what anyone desperate would do, I went to the Chinese market and asked if I could get a small containner of Hoisin. Ten minutes...did I stutter ten minutes, that's how long it took for me to convince the woman behind the counter that though they don't sell hoisin if she put some in a container and I gave her a dollar she would be making at least three times what she pays for a large container retail. A basic lesson in economics.
Finally I had all the elements after the three hours of rising, punching down, rising, punching down of the dough and the pork was roasted we were on our way to pork bun land. Though I was slightly dissappointed in the end result, I was also proud that they were delicious enough to satisfy my hunger for these tasty little treats. In doing the math I realized that the amount of buns, I made 16, would have cost $76 at the restaurant. I know what your thinking, "bravo you learned that cooking at home was less expensive." No, what I learned was how to make your lover gluttonously happy after you bragged the night before about eating the real thing without them, and how annoying the lack of decent grocery stores can be.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pork-Belly-Buns-240258
