Momofuku Ssam Bar: Bo Ssam

Last Sunday, I organized a little get together at Momofuku Bo Ssam for their bo ssam dinner (which means “enclosed” or “wrapped” in Korean). For $200, you get a huge pork butt, a dozen oysters, lettuce, rice, and dipping sauces (pureed kim chee, kim chee bits, ginger scallion sauce, and Korean red sauce, ssam jiang). The pork butt feeds 6-10 people so I invited 9 people to the pork butt party (and two babies, Faire and Cantor).

The restaurant was really packed for a Sunday night – lots of people eating at the bar and the small tables around the restaurant and two other tables were doing the bo ssam (you sign up for the bo ssam online). Some pictures of the dinner guests and then lots of pictures of bo ssam!

Joe and Justin behind some lettuce and sauces for the bo ssam:

Cantor, Dan, Bethany, and Faire waiting for the bo ssam to arrive:

Cantor was ready to eat as soon as he arrived:

David, me, Ariel, and Audrey right before the bo ssam arrived:

Possibly the cutest picture of David and Faire (although this picture from the cupcake party is a close second):

Okay, onto the bo ssam! Our reservation was for 6:30, but we didn’t get our bo ssam for another 30 – 45 minutes (a problem we had when we went to the fried chicken dinner as well) Obviously it’s to get you to order more drinks, food, etc, but we were there for ONE REASON AND ONE REASON ONLY…the gigantic pork butt:

The first wrap you make is supposed to use the oyster (and no sauce):

The waiter also explained that everyone should get some skin because it’s honey glazed, crispy, and really delicious.

My first wrap:

Our entire table:

Joe explains how to wrap the pork butt:

And me enjoying my wrap:

The pork butt was really delicious, especially with an oyster and a little bite of rice. Everyone was able to eat about 3-4 wraps (depending on how much meat you grabbed with the tongs) but I don’t think it was enough for everyone to be full. Everything was a little salty (the pork butt was definitely very salty and so was the homemade kimchee) but I think that’s to be expected in David Cheng cooking (every experience I’ve had with his cooking, even sweets, have been too salty for my taste buds). After we demolished the pork butt, David and I almost wanted to order another because we were still hungry, but I don’t think they would’ve let us because they were definitely rushing us out of the restaurant (even though we ate pretty quickly). I thought dinner was pretty fantastic, but I also think it was somewhat pricey (around $30/pp) and you get a much better value at the fried chicken dinner down the street. I’d definitely return to the restaurant to order a la carte (I hadn’t been back since 2007 when they were only serving burritos), but I think the bo ssam is a little to pricey for what you get and although delicious, I think you can get a better deal in Chinatown.