Who would have thought bread-making could be so difficult? And SO EXTREMELY smelly.

Yesterday, I attempted to make Momofuku's famous pork buns.

Momofuku is a 2 Michelin stars restaurant in New York. Extremely popular, extremely delicious (I would assume). Its owner/chef is David Chang, extraordinarily inspiring. He is not quite like any other celebrity chef. His restaurant only accepts online booking and there is no special treatment for anyone, not even celebrities. Momofuku serves American and Asian fusion.

One point to note: I rarely like (even despise) fusion food. Some things are not meant to be added together: pasta sauce together with rice, the most atrocious would be those Hong Kong styled cha chan teng (tea restaurant shops). Extremely ridiculous mixture of ingredients. Even reading the description would turn me off.

On the other hand, David Chang's concoctions do not raise such distaste in me. In fact, they sound fabulously delicious. Yums! There are many other reasons to love this chef David Chang.

Watch this. And you will know why. And if you have more time, like an hour, this.

He is now one of my role model, the only other would be Galen Rowell, a nature photographer based in California which I was introduced to while I was in USA.

As I mentioned above, I attempted one of Momofuku's signature dishes: pork buns. (I would LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE to try the actual ones when I am ever in New York! Hello Guan Huan.)

So, the recipe called for buns to be accompanied with the pork. It can be bought, but me being adventurous, I tried my hand at making the bread.

Utter miserable FAIL! Never have I failed so badly in baking. Until yesterday, I never knew that things can go so wrong that all the time and effort spent produced nothing (other than a list of things NOT to do).

Not only did I have to THROW EVERYTHING AWAY, the clean up was extremely time-consuming. The yeast dough went too soft and sticky, making it useless AND difficult to clean, it stuck to everything, like glue. Unfathomable smelly glue.

I am dubious whether I should ever try again. But not so soon. It was traumatising.

I got another cooking book. Bless my family never finds out about this, ever. Another reason I idolise David Chang, he dared to go against his parents' wishes. A big taboo in Asian culture, definitely.

Cheers.

P/S: Thankfully the £6 pork turned out alright. Not perfect or close to it, but still edible and delicious with hoisin sauce.

The recipe can be found here.