Birthday Bo Ssäm Dinner at Momofuku Ssäm Bar

I was lucky to get together a good group of friends and relatives in New York for my birthday dinner, so we went to Momofuku Ssäm Bar and ordered their Bo Ssäm, their slow roasted whole pork butt.
We started with a few appetizers. First up was honeycrisp apple kimchee with Benton's bacon. Honeycrisp apples are my favorite apple, and the kimchee maintained the crispiness of the fruit. The sweetness paired well with the smoky-salty flavor of the Benton's bacon.
One of the specials was a variant on Momofuku's famous pork belly buns, so Fougoo ordered that. Instead of hoisin and onion, this version had pickled ginger, avocado, basil and mayo, and the pork belly was fried. It was actually lighter tasting than their usual bun.






I had a great time eating the Bo Ssäm. The pork butt was massive. It must have been 10 lbs. With 7 of us eating, we ended up with about a third of the butt leftover.
The bo ssäm is served with lettuce, a dozen raw oysters, rice and four "sauces": kimchee, pureed kimchee, ginger & onion in oil, and gochujang (the Korean red chili sauce). The way you eat it, is you take a piece of lettuce, grab some pork, and then you add a combination of the different elements, almost like a taco. I liked using the raw oyster because of the way it added a briny flavor to the pork as well as the texture of the oyster itself.
When were had our fill of pork butt, we celebrated with a whole crack pie from the Momofuku Milk Bar next door. It was really sweet and buttery. I was happy to celebrate my birthday with such a great meal in such wonderful company.


207 2nd Ave.
(corner of 13th + 2nd)
New York, NY