Chicken. Pork, Sweet Potato & Pineapple Stew Recipe. Grilled Pork Tenderloin Marinated in Spicy Soy Sauce Recipe. Black-Eyed Peas with Pork & Greens Recipe. Quick Pork Mole. Caribbean Foods. Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork) Recipe. Take a stroll through any Chinatown in the world and you’re bound to see restaurants with strips of red char siu hanging from hooks in the windows.
Char siu literally means “fork burned” which is a reference to the traditional preparation, skewered and barbecued over a fire. While you may not have had a chance to try it over rice or in noodle soup, you’ve probably had it chopped up in pork buns (char siu bao) at one point or other. At its best, char siu is moist and flavorful on the inside and caramelized and slightly chewy on the outside, with a sweet aroma redolent of five-spice and garlic. Unfortunately, at many establishments (in the NY Chinatown), it’s overly sweet, grisly, artificially colored meat that’s been hanging under a heatlamp for hours.