Char siu

Char siu (Chinese: 叉燒; pinyin: chāshāo; Cantonese Yale: chāsīu) is a popular way to flavor and prepare barbecued pork in Cantonese cuisine. It is classified as a type of siu mei (燒味), Cantonese roasted meal. This Cantonese roast meat Char siu (叉燒/叉烧) or slightly different spelling, cha siu is its Cantonese name, but in Mandarin, it is known as cha shao. To make char siu, pork is marinated in a sweet BBQ sauce and then roasted.

Char siu literally means "fork roasted" (siu being burn/roast and cha being fork, both noun and verb) after the traditional cooking method for the dish: long strips of seasoned boneless pork are skewered with long forks and placed in a covered oven or over a fire.

Char siu is typically consumed with a starch, whether inside a bun (chasiu baau, 叉燒包), with noodles (chasiu min, 叉燒麵), or with rice (chasiu faan, 叉燒飯) in fast food establishments, or served alone as a centerpiece or main dish in traditional family dining establishments (large restaurants). If it is purchased outside of a restaurant, it is usually taken home and used as one ingredient in various complex entrees consumed at family meals.

In Hong Kong, char siu is usually purchased from a siu mei establishment, which specialises in meat dishes—char siu, soy sauce chicken, white cut chicken, roasted goose, roasted pork, etc. These shops usually display the merchandise by hanging them in the window. As a result, char siu is often consumed alongside one of these other meat dishes, as an independent lunch item on a per-person basis in a "rice box" meal. More commonly, it is purchased whole or sliced and wrapped and taken home to be used in family meals either by itself or cooked into one of many vegetable or meat dishes which use it as an ingredient.