Char Siu

From Cantonese siu mei (烧味) roasting tradition, formalized in Guangzhou roast-meat shops by the late Qing era (mid-19th century). The name 叉烧 ("fork-roasted") evolved from an older method called 插烧 ("insert-roasting"): the prized loin of a whole roast pig was so limited (only two strips per pig) that cooks took to skewering several loin strips together on forks over open fire, and 插烧 gradually became 叉烧. The vertical hang is what lets fat drip off and creates the dish's defining edge char.

Red-lacquered Cantonese roast pork, hung in shop windows since Qing-dynasty Guangzhou. The maltose-and-fermented-bean-curd glaze is what gives it the candy edge.

Strips of pork — preferably shoulder with a fat seam, not loin — hung in long pieces, lacquered red-mahogany, with charred-black edges where honey caramelized hardest. Sliced across the grain into thumb-thick pieces and laid over rice. Sweet first, then five-spice and fermented-bean-curd funk underneath, then a clean fat finish. The black edges are the prize, not a flaw.

The marinade's fermented red bean curd (南乳, nán rǔ) is the load-bearing umami most home recipes substitute or skip; without it, char siu tastes like sweet teriyaki. Honey is brushed on only in the last 5 minutes of roasting — added earlier it burns to bitter carbon before the meat finishes. Proper char siu is shoulder with marbling; loin char siu, common in Western Chinese restaurants, dries out and misses the whole point.