And while I’m on the subject, I think the ultimate Super Bowl party food is Bo Ssäm, Korean pulled pork served in lettuce wraps with quick-pickles, kimchi, ssamjang sauce, and rice, made famous at Momofuku Ssäm Bar.* It’s very easy to prepare and serve — the most time-consuming part is slicing veggies and fruits for the pickles — and it’s such a succulent combination of flavors and textures that your friends will hoist you on their shoulder like the mothereffin’ MVP.
Here’s David Chang’s recipe, which is more or less what I follow. I learned how to make it from our dear friend and former roommate Akiko, who once worked at Ssäm Bar. She skips the oysters (they’re really not necessary, especially at home) and replaces them with quick pickles of thinly sliced Asian pear, cucumber, jicama, radish, fennel, red onion … whatever looks good. Pickles cut the salt and fat of the pork beautifully. I like to have four varieties for guests to choose from, about a cup or two of each pickle.
Here’s a recipe for pickling juice. I would double it and add 1 teaspoon dashi soup stock granules OR one 20 cm square piece of kombu seaweed, as per Akiko’s directions. Let steep in the fridge overnight. I definitely do not make my own kimchi, though I do make my own variation of Ssäm Sauce — you can use store-bought ssamjang or skip it altogether, whatever you like. Chang’s ginger scallion sauce would also be good.
And for vegetarians, simply marinade and roast or grill tofu in ssamjang or similar. With all those delicious garnishes, they’re not missing out on too much.
Serve the bo ssäm with Crunch Berry Snack Mix (which I adapted into a junk food popcorn mix) to complete the Momofuku domination.
* They’re now charging $200++ for the meal. Highway robbery. This is poor people’s food at its very best. Make it yourself — and save your money for the whole rotisserie duck, which is worth the price.
Fuckin’ bloggers.
The bo ssam in its sweet & salty crusted glory.
Pork butt in … bo ssam out.
I’m not sayin’ it worked, I’m just sayin’ this was our Super Bowl party invite:
Subject: Bo ssäm Voodoo
This is my theory: New Orleans is home to some of the best food in the world. Indianapolis decidedly is not. So the better the food served on Super Bowl Sunday, the better the chances the Saints will win. (Don’t think too hard about it. Just go with it.)
To that end, we’re making bo ssäm for the Super Bowl, and we’d love to have you join us. (For those who’ve never had it, it’s frickin’ voodoo in a lettuce wrap. Mystically delicious.)
Quick pickles (Bosc pears, radishes, English cucumber, and fennel) which I could eat all day long and with anything. Plus kimchi and ssam jang.
Pailey girls load up…
The first of two wraps I inhaled with delirious joy. The quality of the pork butt was THROUGH THE ROOF. We got it from our friends at The Meat Hook. I mean look at it:
If you ever make bo ssäm (take a cue from Kristin and give it a go!), spend extra to get good pork. Last time a snafu with a local pig farmer meant we had to buy our butts at Whole Foods and they were merely delicious, not orgasmic.
Finally, here’s a recipe, though not the one we used which is TOP SECRET. But if you email me I’d be willing to share it. (Like I said: TOP SECRET! :)
What a weekend! Let’s work backwards shall we?
The Saints won the goddamn Super Bowl! Here’s me and (some of) my Tulane girls praisin’ Breesus and all that jazz.
The first half was Estrogen Fest XLIV. Look at all them ladies! M.’s was the sole Y chromosome ‘til after half-time (and he was mostly in the kitchen, cooking — ha!). Then Mark and Petey showed up. Petey trained it all the way from Harlem to catch the end of the game with us. He was there at the play-off game and he thought — rightly — it’d be bad juju for the Saints if he didn’t show.
On a side note: Mark and M. are intellectual gourmands (sorry, no other words for it) who drool over each other’s bookshelves and spent 20 minutes crafting a cocktail around a very serious and very potent bottle of Creme de Violet from Paris. Meanwhile they’re tossing around arcane football terms and commenting on the finer points of the game — and they’re first to admit they haven’t watched football since the last Super Bowl. Where do men pick up this knowledge? Secret Boys’ Club meetings?
Anyway.
Laura was voted Most Team Spirit with her superhot gold leggings and homemade pralines.
INTERCEPTION!!!!!!
When they won we put on “Glory Bound” and “Feel Like Funkin’ It Up” and danced around like we were down in New Orleans. There’s just no dancin’ like the dancin’ we do down there.
Oh and then I think Akiko screamed “Show us your tits!” and M. took his shirt off. We didn’t even have beads to throw him!
He’s always looking for an excuse to take his shirt off.
For a party on Saturday, M. and Akiko made Bo Ssäm, a specialty of Momofuku Ssäm Bar (Akiko used to be a chef there).
It’s an entire pork butt that is brined, slow-cooked, and basted with brown sugar. It’s so tender that it falls apart with the flick of a fork. You wrap it in lettuce leaves with a variety of quick-pickles (Asian pear, ginger, red onion, jicama, cucumber, and radishes), sagyegeol ssäm jang (a Korean soybean paste), kimchee, and rice.*
It is out of this world.
Here’s mine (hell yeah I ate meat for the occasion!):
And I totally ate some for breakfast the next day.
* At Ssäm Bar it’s served with raw oysters. You may remember Anthony Bourdain and David Chang gorging on it on an episode of “No Reservations.”
The Great American Cooking Project