Red cooked pork belly buns - revisited

Happy Valentine's Chinese New Year Day! I thought it appropriate to post about pork belly on this momentous occasion, because nothing goes better with any holiday than fatty pork.

Some things are so delicious you just have to revisit them as often as you can justify it to yourself - and maybe improve on them each time. As you may recall I posted about red-cooked pork belly buns a few months back. They were delicious--but then, it would be hard for pork belly not to be delicious--but needed something.

The first iteration of pork belly buns included some plain wilted spinach as a green inside the steamed buns. The greens provided a nice neutral flavored counterpoint to the rich pork belly, but the stems were a little tough to bite through and distracting when I just wanted to get to the delicious tender pork waiting inside, and the spinach added nothing in terms of texture to the buns.This time I included the pickled radishes I had made in place of the spinach--and added some fresh cilantro leaves as garnish.

Perfection.

The pork belly, so rich and fatty and meltingly tender and flavorful and delicious, goes perfectly with the crunchy radishes, and the acid helps cut through the richness of the pork. Cilantro adds a bright, warm flavor note. I could eat so many of these little sandwiches without getting tired of them, so constantly have to remind myself that just because the pickles counteract the richness doesn't mean I'm not consuming said richness. These buns are amazing. So many flavors and textures in a tiny little package. I wonder how soon my arteries can handle me making more...