Pork Belly Sliders @ Vella Nero, 22 May 2013

Vella Nero (259 Clarence St, Sydney) is the Sydney CBD café run by the sister team of Gina, Vicky, and Aileen. They are probably more known for their coffee (which they do very well), but today I was at Vella Nero to try out their latest creation, pork belly sliders. I don’t think these are a permanent part of the lunch menu (and I am not sure if that is the intention or whether these will be sold from time to time as a special), so anyone wanting to try the pork belly slider will need to track this through Vella Nero’s FaceBook page (https://www.facebook.com/vellanero).  

Crispy Pork Belly Slider ($7 each)

I ordered 2 sliders and this was good quantity wise for lunch. They were priced at $7 each which I felt was very reasonably priced. I really enjoyed these sliders. It’s really quite a simple yet sinfully delicious combination: crispy pork belly, with sweet and savoury hoisin sauce on a soft bun. The pork belly was really nicely cooked. The meat was tender, fatty and had great flavour. The crackling was just amazing! Very crispy but not so hard that my teeth would break from biting into it. And of course the hoisin sauce was tasty and works so well with pork belly. The slices of cucumber and the shallots add freshness to the slider. Whilst I enjoyed the soft, fluffy bun, which was served fresh and not toasted, I do wonder whether the slider would be even better if it was toasted?! It would definitely be interesting to do a comparison.  

These pork belly sliders reminded me of the pork belly bun sold at bar area of Spice Temple (see http://foodmab.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/guangxi-pork-bun-spice-temple.html), which is $15 from memory for a bun that is roughly the same size as the Vella Nero slider. Putting aside the obvious difference in the flavour of the different sauces, with Spice Temple’s being more spicy and Vella Nero’s being more sweet, I would say that the pork belly slider at Vella Nero is the more satisfying of the two pork belly buns. This is due to the fact that with $15, you can get 2 buns at Vella Nero. The pork bun at Spice Temple is not twice as good, if anything it is of similar quality.