Bon Appétit joins Lucas Sin at Sun Kwai Heung in Hong Kong to try their Chinese BBQ pork called Char Siu. This Cantonese dish is famous for its delicious smoky glaze and is a staple in Chinese cooking.
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00:00Good morning, welcome to Chaiwan, eastern edge of Hong Kong Island.
00:09We're here at Sun Gui Heung, probably the best char siu in town.
00:14Let's see what's happening at the back.
00:18Welcome to the kitchen.
00:21So chefs are putting together the char siu.
00:24They're skewering it with these metal skewers that are going to allow them to hang inside
00:29of that vertical oven.
00:30Skewering the pork on the thicker end so that they can hang, cook, render.
00:36Skewering the pork this way allows them to cook relatively evenly since they're cut into
00:40thick slabs.
00:42In most of American butchery, it all comes from one part of the pig, but actually there's
00:46a lot of texture differentiation, whether it's fattiness, leanness, but also the crispness
00:51and I suppose the snappiness of that type of pork.
00:54A little bit of soaked newspaper on the top of the char siu to stop it from burning.
00:59All of this is to control the temperature to affect the final texture of the char siu.
01:05All the char siu is inside of the oven.
01:07All the different cuts you can see.
01:08Chef has linked some of it together as a little bit of manipulation because at the end of
01:12the day, the cooking is constant, the fire is constant.
01:14So the way that this cooks is entirely dependent on the positioning of the pork, whether it's
01:19lower close to the flame, which is actually a little bit cooler, or it's hotter over the
01:22top.
01:23This is what he's making.
01:24He says the leaner cuts towards the top, the fattier cuts towards the bottom.
01:27You want low temperature to render out all that fat, but the leaner cuts can actually
01:31take a little bit more heat and they can cook a little bit longer.
01:33This is going to be the first 25 to 30 minutes or so, and then he's going to check, flip
01:37them over, rotate a little bit, and then readjust, add maltose, so on and so forth.
01:45These guys open for business at 8, but it really starts to get busy around lunchtime.
01:50It's almost 5 o'clock.
01:55Oh my goodness.
01:57First roast is done.
02:16So this is the leaner parts.
02:17This is the part that's going to be a little bit drier, but less fatty.
02:20Down here, this is the first cut.
02:22Over here, there's the fattier bits, super tender, encased in a little bit of fat.
02:27I mean, this is all the range of texture.
02:29You can start to see it come together as the char siu is being cooked.
02:32A little bit of char, that's part of the charm.
02:34He's letting it rest for a couple of minutes before it goes inside of the maltose.
02:37It's going to cool down.
02:38It's going to glaze, and it's going to go back inside of the oven for that final glaze.
02:43There you go.
02:45Maltose glaze.
02:46Maltose, also known as malt sugar, is an alternative to honey in a lot of places,
02:51but that is the original sugar used to glaze char siu.
02:54When you're adding maltose to the char siu, it's going to glaze the outside,
02:58and it's going to cling onto the pork a little bit better than honey.
03:02Maltose gives it a nice, clear, crisp glisten.
03:06Dude, this is so sexy.
03:08Jesus Christ.
03:11That maltose is so thick, it's going to cling to the char siu as it roasts,
03:15even at slightly higher temperatures.
03:17It's going to caramelize on the outside.
03:19It might pick up a little bit of char, it might burn just a little bit,
03:21but that's crisp, and that's what us Hong Kong people like.
03:25Now's the time for the second cook of the char siu.
03:27These skewers positioned at different parts of the pork are going to keep everything flat
03:32so that he can get as consistent of a cook as he can.
03:36The chef's starting to marinate the char siu for the day.
03:38The first roast is actually meat that's been marinated the night before.
03:42So sugar.
03:44There goes some salt.
03:46A little bit of five-spice. Five-spice being those warming spices.
03:48Cinnamon, clove, anise, so into loads.
03:52A little bit of sand ginger powder.
03:54Everything mixed together like a dry rub.
03:58So this is soybean paste.
04:00In Cantonese barbecue restaurants, this is known as sam cheong, raw sauce.
04:04But really, it's a fermented soybean paste that has been all brised until it's smooth.
04:08And here comes a little bit of additional rose wine.
04:11This is sorghum wine infused with a little bit of rose.
04:15That rose wine gives it a little bit of light floralness to bolster that sweetness.
04:18Along with everything else inside of the sauce, it becomes a very sweet and savory profile.
04:23That savoriness comes primarily from soybeans.
04:26The key here is to get everything even.
04:28It's a combination of a dry and a wet rub.
04:30This marinade time is so important for that pork to be juicy.
04:34Do you know that when I first wanted to learn how to cook,
04:39when I was 16 years old,
04:42I learned how to make Sichuan cuisine at the Ming Po factory in Chai Wan.
04:47That's when I started to eat your food.
04:50That was more than 20 years ago.
04:52How old were you when you started?
04:54I was around 10 years old.
04:56You said you'd been doing this for over 40 years.
04:58Until now.
04:59You were very young.
05:01I was over 60.
05:04Oh, hello.
05:05Okay, char siu is coming out of the oven.
05:06It's been 50 minutes-ish of total cooking time over char siu the entire time.
05:11You can see that dark black char.
05:13It's going to give a little bit of crunch, a little bit of crispiness.
05:15That maltose has really done what it's supposed to do.
05:18This bright red is a sign of proper charcoal grilled char siu.
05:22Chef now is going to trim a little bit of that black charcoal off.
05:25Because at the end of the day, the burnt bits are burnt.
05:28It's a little bit bitter.
05:29So he's going to trim it a little bit and then bring it outside for all the world to see.
05:33First char siu of the day.
05:51And we can take a look at how chef is cutting it.
05:53Actually, this cutting of the char siu is so important because he is the selector.
05:59He's a curator of the meat experience.
06:02Chef here is going to make a plate of all four cuts just for us to see the difference in texture.
06:07But the key to getting the type of char siu that you want is to communicate and tell them how fatty you want it.
06:12And if you really know what the specific cut of char siu you like is.
06:24Is this the second cut?
06:26Second cut.
06:28Snappy.
06:29First cut.
06:39I shouldn't know exactly what this tastes like because I've been eating here for so long.
06:42But that is just...
06:44It doesn't get better than this.
06:46I'm so glad we shoot in the morning.
06:48First char siu that comes out of the oven and we get it.
06:51So snappy. So sweet.
06:53Just so like...
06:55It's not honey.
06:57Imagine eating a whole spoon of honey.
06:59It's so sweet.
07:01But the maltose is such a gentle glaze.
07:04For most people, first timers here.
07:06Best thing to order is if you can get it.
07:08First cut.
07:10That snappiness in this pork is really really special.
07:14There's only two pieces of this in each pig.
07:16Which means that it's a very very special juicy but snappy experience.
07:19Here it's called 三粒叉.
07:21Three bit char siu.
07:22Three pieces of lean meat with tendon and fat in between.
07:25If you want something a little bit leaner, less fatty.
07:27The lean pork at 新貴鄉 tender.
07:33I haven't seen this cut in many other places.
07:35This rib cap.
07:37It's a meat encased with a little bit of tendon.
07:39That gives it a little bit of chew.
07:41And then fat.
07:42When you eat this.
07:45It just melts away.
07:53For Cantonese people, Chinese people in general.
07:55Fatty but not greasy is really important.
07:58You can taste it melt away.
08:00But it's not cloying.
08:01It doesn't hang onto your palate too much.
08:03Perhaps this is me being biased.
08:05But as a Hong Kong person.
08:06Hong Kong really has perfected Cantonese barbecue.
08:09They've made it popular.
08:10They've made it democratic.
08:12A lot of places have made it really really consistent.
08:14But just in this store alone.
08:16The cuts and the type of marinade that they use is proprietary.
08:20These names.
08:21一片天,三粒叉.
08:23All of these things come specifically from this store.
08:26There's still this innovation that had happened in the last 60, 70 years in Hong Kong.
08:31Now the cooking of these meats is really complicated.
08:34So we don't do this at home.
08:35You get them at shops.
08:37This is called a 燒味舖.
08:38A Cantonese barbecue shop.
08:40Where they have the duck.
08:41The chicken.
08:42The goose.
08:43The roast pork.
08:44The barbecue pork.
08:45Now it's about 10, 10.30.
08:47All of the Taiwan neighbourhood locals are starting to come and get their meats for the day.
09:06I know this episode is all about 叉燒.
09:08But the real lunch.
09:10Cantonese barbecue lunch.
09:11Is a 碟口飯.
09:13Plate of rice.
09:14With 叉燒.
09:15And chicken.
09:17白切雞.
09:19叉燒 in its full, proper presentation.
09:21Is best served over rice.
09:24And that's 新貴香.
09:25Arguably the best 叉燒 in Hong Kong.
09:27It's the best.
09:28Because, number one.
09:29The freshness of the pork.
09:30Number two.
09:31The technique.
09:32And number three.
09:33Perhaps most importantly.
09:34The negotiation.
09:35Between the customer preference.
09:36And the specificity.
09:37At which they cut their pork.
09:38That's the texture.
09:39And that's the flavour.
09:40All in control.
09:41Through the discussion.
09:42Of the customer.
09:43With the people who are cooking.
09:44One of the best experiences we've had in Hong Kong so far.
09:46On to the next.