BBQ Pork (Chinese Char Siu)

A most popular Chinese dish, well known in the East and as well as the west is Char Siu or BBQ Pork, and perhaps more popular is BBQ Pork Rice (Char Siu Fan).

I personally feel the BBQ pork pieces should have a thin layer or two of fats, moist, tender, grilled or BBQ to perfection, slightly charred with sticky juicy sweetness. Now, that is what I call Char Siu.

I have been searching and experimenting with a few recipes including creating my own but I have to agree with Bee Yinn Low of Rasa Malaysia that the secret lies in the choice of meat, maltose, Chinese rose wine and 5-spice powder used. 

The first time I made my own Char Siu, I used only lean meat and ...(chuckling!) thinking back, the pork pieces were very dry, tough and leathery! Well, in cooking and baking, there's always the superb and yucky, the beautiful intricate decor and messy dump! ...we have to keep on learning from our mistake and keep smiling as we improve, just as one blogger friend, Mary Moh said. So, after a couple of tries and then I stumbled on Bee Yinn's site.

Bee Yinn Low is a fantastic cook, who has just recently launched her very first cookbook, Easy Chinese Recipes (You can get her book here). It's scheduled for release in June (for Asia) and September (for US). She has showcased some superb local dishes.

The recipe for Char Siu is available in Rasa Malaysia. I followed her recipe but omitted the red food colouring and 5-spice powder as I'm not too fond of it. The Char Siu still taste very good...it's finger-licking good!

Happy cooking!