Mmmm...pork. Nothing hits home and brings comfort like chunks of tender and succulent pork that just melts in your mouth. I was grocery shopping at Longo's last weekend and saw a fresh piece of pork shoulder blade (also known as pork butt for some reason even though it comes from the shoulder and not anywhere near the butt area) on sale. Being the pork fanatic and cheap shopper that I am, I wasted no time in purchasing this fatty, artery-clogging cut of meat and hurried home so I can start the lengthy cooking process.
My first thought was to braise it in BBQ sauce and make pulled pork sandwiches, but then I thought, how can I "asianize" it and make it more interesting? So I decided to cook the pork in a classic Chinese soy sauce based braising liquid and then made some sweet and fluffy Chinese steamed buns (Mantou) to go with it. I filled the steamed buns with some of the fork-tender pork and chopped green onions and there you have it...a Chinese version of the pulled pork sandwich.