Saturday, February 26, 2011

Bo Ssäm at Momofuku

I went to eat at Momofuku today, with my friend Ben and 7 other of his friends. We ordered the Bo Ssäm, which is a large pork butt. Evidently a pork butt is actually shoulder. I have no idea what term you would use if you wanted refer to the actual butt-meat of the pork.

From Momofuku with Ben

At any rate, it came with a large mound of lettuce, along with a few sauces: the classic Korean fermented bean red sauce, a scallion and ginger oil-based sauce, kimchi, a spicy carrot sauce, and sea salt. A large bowl of rice also came. Along with all that came a platter of oysters. In fact, all that I just mentioned was doubled. Two bowls of lettuce, two sets of sauces, two rice, two plates of oysters. Finally, one giant pork shoulder came out, a long with enough tongs for everyone. The meat was very tender, and just could be gently pulled off. The idea was to take some shreds of meat, put it in a lettuce wrap along with sauce, an oyster, and rice. The pork and oyster was a really interested combination that worked surprisingly well. "It's double treif!" one of my eating companions joyously exclaimed.

From Momofuku with Ben

The shoulder could probably feed 6 people without any other appetizers. We had probably a few too many appetizers, and were left with about half a pound of meat left.

From Momofuku with Ben

The whole thing cost $200. Is it worth it? Financially, I'd say the price is pretty reasonable for what you get. The opportunity cost is high, though. Even though there's a variety of sauces, and the meat actually varies in fatiness and texture as you go through it, the fact remains that if you get it, you can't get much else. Which means you are missing at least some of the other awesome items on the menu. So you are essentially trading off variety for a unique eating experience. It's not just unique, it seems like an ancient communal eating experience: a group of friends gathered eating from the same cooked animal. It was pretty special. Probably worth doing once, but not more than once.