Pork

Our Momofuku ramen is garnished with two types of pork: sliced pork belly and pulled shoulder meat. Pork belly and shoulder are two of the cheapest and most flavourful pieces of the hog, discounting all the goodness you can wring out of the head and the tail.

When we opened we were braising our pork in a mixture of pork stock and soy. It was slow and time-consuming and the results weren’t ideal. It was an accident that spurred us down a new path: one day I put a pan of bellies into the oven and accidentally cranked it to 250°C. After about an hour, I stumbled across my mistake.