Another Lunch at Momofuku Ssäm Bar & Bakery

Apologies for not posting the past few weeks. I’m getting lazy with the posting and with the holidays coming, I’ve been busy buying and wrapping presents and writing Christmas cards. Damn the post office line being ridiculously long…

I went to Momofuku Ssäm Bar (yes, again) a few weeks ago with Giulia. Why did I go there again? Well, for two reasons: One, I kept mentioning about their luscious, fatty pork buns on a lot of different food conversations that it piqued her interest. And two, I never took her there. So, it’s about time to take her there as a de-stressing lunch after she took one of the many law school finals that will come on the later weeks, on Monday.

Menu board

As usual, I’m early for my lunch date and I was hungry. So, I plopped into Momofuku Milk Bar & Bakery for a relatively light bite before the actual lunch with Giulia.

Banana Green Curry Bread

After perusing on the menu board and looking at the pastry cases to see what’s available, I opted for the banana green curry bread since that’s pretty much what I haven’t tried so far. Basically, it’s a thick slice of banana bread slathered with green curry butter; toasted until the butter is melted completely. For my slice, the side that touch the griddle was a bit too burnt but I could deal with it. The entire combination was interesting – flavorful, moist banana bread with a warm, zing from the curry butter that’s melted throughout the toast. The slight drawback was that it’s a tad too greasy. A nice snack while I’m waiting. Then I walked over to the Ssam Bar proper and got seated at the bar.

Eventually Giulia showed up, exchanged hugs, and we started to order by sharing the prix fixe menu.

Pork buns

As promised, I’ve finally introduced to her the pork buns. These lovely pair of steamed buns were brushed with salty hosin sauce then lined with cucumbers, luscious, fatty pork belly, and scattered with chopped, green scallions. The nice addition is the hot sauce they give you the option to amp up the heat. While we’re eating them, Giulia commented she understands why I love these buns – it’s made of pork and it’s tasty.

Grilled Branzino

Out of the entree choices from the prix fixe, the only thing that I haven’t eaten (and I don’t want to eat any more turkey), was the grilled branzino. Two filleted slabs of branzino that’s been grilled enough to have a nice char and crisp crust while still having moist meat, plated under a bed of cranberry beans and salad to go along with the fish. It’s good and probably the lightest option you could get. I’m just not too thrilled with the beans – I’m not a bean loving girl mainly because of the texture (too crunchy).

Blondie Pie

Finally, we arrive to dessert: blondie pie. I like this a bit more than the PB&J I had last time because it wasn’t as salty. The slight issue with eating this pie was that the thick filling was kind of chewy-hard that we have to stab it with a fork to get a bite. In terms of flavor, it’s rich, undercooked caramel-like filling with a graham cracker crust. I like but it doesn’t knock my socks off.

After finishing dessert, we called it quits for eating more food since strangely enough, we’re full. Since Giulia hasn’t been to the bakery section of Momofuku, I took her there and she ended up buying a slice of chocolate chip cake (if you need to see what it is, click here from an earlier outing). I think she told me that it’s her afternoon snack or dinner. Anyway, I had to haul my butt back to work since I ended up taking a longer lunch than I should have…

Address:
Momofuku Ssäm Bar & Bakery
207 2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10003 (map)