Maddy

Certainly not the first Heritage Dumpling I traveled for, but the first that had peaceful staycation vibes. I finally made my back to Madison for the first time since graduating 7 (!) years ago, and after everyone went back to their real jobs, I still had two days to make myself comfortable in Maddy and Luis's kitchen. Oh and it was beautiful. I spent alllll dayyyyyy cooking and even went out to their garden to pick some ingredients. And then I felt like a happy housewife with everything ready and warm when the couple got home from work. Maddy was first. Maddy identifies as American with European heritage (Jewish and Italian). I met Maddy in graduate school but slightly later than the rest of the frands because she wasn't at the crazy obstacle course department orientation thing. She was still interning at Lindt, and when she came back, I was like no omg she's too cool for me. As it turns out though, Maddy's tactic for making friends is similar to mine: feed them and the right ones will keep coming back.

Maddy ate a lot of Maruchan ramen and chocolate chips by the handful. And while this combo doesn't seem to go together at all, I knew I couldn't ignore the chocolate because she literally makes (and eats) chocolate for work now. I googled 'chocolate ramen' on a whim and guess what, it already exists - as a Valentine special in Japan. Because of course it does in Japan. Apparently, chocolate chunks are added to the soy broth with garlic oil, and apparently you should make sure to stir the chocolate so that it melts into the broth for the best sensory experience. I don't know. I'd try it but I probably wouldn't buy it. And I definitely wasn't going to risk trying to recreate it in my one shot at Maddy's dumplings in Madison.

So what I thought about instead was cocoa rubbed meats. And what meat goes better with ramen than pork belly mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Thus, this became a two ish day process, roasting a slab of pork belly first Cantonese style with a rub of salt, sugar, and a generous amount of cocoa powder. I could've eaten the pork in chunks like this:

But I cooked it again with aromatics and a couple handfuls of phish food chips for that melty saucy richness that will be stuffed into my pork baos.

Yes, because picture your classic bbq pork bao... but chocolatey. It's not weird I promise. I wish I could've frozen some to smuggle back to California with me.

The bao dough wasn't your standard dough though. I crushed up a packet of Maruchan ramen noodles to make a ramen 'flour' to blend into the dry mix. And then I was unsuccessful in locating the sieve (it was hanging above my eye level) to sieve out the larger chunks, so I forged on.

And ended up with these pock-marked looking baos.

But packed with as much pork filling as I could manage because I hate biting into a pork bun to get a mouthful of just... bun.

Things I would do differently: successfully find the sieve to be able to sieve out the larger ramen pieces that interfered with my gluten formation.

Maddy's complete list:

maruchan ramen

lots of pasta

toll house chocolate chips by the handful