Momof*cku's pork buns recipe (2024)

It's weird to be 'famous' for something. Can you imagine being Neil Diamond and having to sing Cracklin' Rosie every time you get onstage for the rest of your life? Neither can I. But if Momof*cku is "famous" for something, it's these steamed pork buns. Are they good? They are. Are they something that sprang from our collective imagination like Athena out of Zeus's forehead? Hell no. They're just our take on a pretty common Asian food formula: steamed bread + tasty meat = good eating. And they were an eleventh-hour addition to the menu. Almost a mistake. No one thought they were a good idea or that anyone would want to eat pork belly sandwiches.

I got into the whole steamed bread thing when I stayed in Beijing. I ate char siu bao - steamed buns stuffed with dark, sweet roast pork - morning, noon and night from vendors on the street who did nothing but satisfy that city's voracious appetite for steamed buns. When I lived in Tokyo, I'd pick up a niku-man - the Japanese version, with a milder-flavoured filling - every time I passed the local convenience store. They're like the 7-Eleven hot dogs of Tokyo, with an appeal not unlike that of the soft meatiness of White Castle hamburgers.

And in the early days of my relationship with Oriental Garden - the restaurant in Manhattan's Chinatown where I've eaten more meals than anywhere else on the planet - I'd always order the Peking duck, which the restaurant serves with folded-over steamed buns with fluted edges, an inauthentic improvement on the more common accompaniment of spring onion pancakes.

After I'd eaten his Peking duck about a million times, I asked Mr Choi, the owner (whom I now call Uncle Choi, because he's the Chinese uncle I never had), to show me how to make the steamed buns. For as many times as I had eaten steamed buns, I had never thought about making them, but with Noodle Bar about to open, I had the menu on my mind. He laughed and put me off for weeks before finally relenting. (He likes to remind me that I am the kung-fu - the student, the seeker, the workman - and he is the si-fu - the master.) But instead of taking me back into the kitchen, he handed me a scrap of paper with an address, the name John on it, and a note scribbled in Chinese that I couldn't read.

Have you ever seen the blaxploitation martial arts movie The Last Dragon from the '80s, where the dude is in constant search for some type of master who can provide some wisdom, and in the end it turns out to be a hoax - the master's place is a fortune cookie factory? Probably not. But that's how I felt when the place I was sent to learn the secret of steamed bread turned out to be May May Foods, a local company that supplied dozens of New York restaurants with premade dim sum items, including buns, for decades before it closed in 2007. The guy there, John, showed me the dead-simple process: a little mixing, a little steaming, and presto! Buns. It turns out they are made from a simple white bread dough, mantou (not so different from, say, Wonder Bread), that is steamed instead of baked.

But when I saw the flour everywhere and tried to imagine that mess in our tiny, already overcrowded kitchen, I immediately placed an order. We didn't have the space to attempt them then, and we continued to buy them from Chinatown bakeries even after May May closed.

If you have that option - a Chinese bakery or restaurant where you can easily buy them, or even a well-stocked freezer section at a local Chinese grocery store - I encourage you to exercise it without any pangs of guilt. How many sandwich shops bake their own bread? Right. Don't kill yourself. But don't be put off by the idea of making them either. They're easy and they freeze perfectly.

Here's the recipe for our pork buns, which you can increase ad infinitum to make more to share. Want the recipe for the steamed buns (sans filling)?]

Ingredients

Method

Notes

Chang's recipes for pickled cucumber and barbecued pork belly are in his Momof*cku cookbook. Sriracha is a Thai chilli sauce. Many of the ingredients used in these recipes are available from Asian supermarkets.
Reprinted from Momof*cku ($65, hbk) by David Chang and Peter Meehan. Copyright © 2009. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House.
Chang's recipes have been reproduced with minor Gourmet Traveller style changes.

• Entertaining10 masterful cookware sets for the discerning home chef

  Mar 27, 2024

• Restaurant NewsThe Sanderson is launching a monthly co*cktail-pairing degustation

  Mar 22, 2024

• Drinks NewsHow to make a Blackberry Buck co*cktail

  Mar 22, 2024

• Travel NewsFour domestic and international flight sales worth checking out tonight

  Mar 22, 2024

• Travel NewsFive reasons to road-test the new GWM Haval H6GT coupe SUV

  Mar 21, 2024

• CruisesCunard’s culinary cruise itinerary for 2025 is as deliciously exclusive as you’d expect

  Mar 21, 2024

  See Also

  Crispy Green Beans PF Chang’s Copycat Recipe

• Restaurant ReviewsLola's: Restaurant review

  Mar 21, 2024

• Crustacean crash course: A guide to the types of crustaceans to know

  Mar 21, 2024

• Recipe CollectionsBest hot cross bun recipes for Easter

  Mar 21, 2024

• Drinks NewsClassic co*cktail: How to make a Manhattan

  Mar 21, 2024

• Restaurant NewsThe best new restaurants and bars in Melbourne

  Mar 21, 2024

• Recipe CollectionsRecipes for the ultimate Easter lunch feast

  Mar 20, 2024

• Destinations16 best Maldives resorts for an island getaway in 2024

  Mar 20, 2024

• Restaurant News10 impressive Brisbane restaurants to book when visitors are in town

  Mar 19, 2024

• Restaurant NewsThe best new restaurants and bars in Sydney

  Mar 19, 2024

• Supersize Me: The future of dining out in Australia

  Mar 19, 2024

• DestinationsBalearic beauty: Where to eat, drink and stay on Menorca Island, Spain

  Mar 19, 2024

• Chefs' RecipesMassimo Mele's lemon-scented goat meatballs

  Mar 18, 2024

• Recipe Collections40 best fish recipes for Good Friday, Easter and beyond

  Mar 18, 2024