''Cha siu bao'' () is a

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

baozi Baozi (), or simply bao, is a type of yeast-leavened filled bun in various Chinese cuisines. There are many variations in fillings (meat or vegetarian) and preparations, though the buns are most often steaming, steamed. They are a variation of ...

'' (bun) filled with barbecue-flavored ''cha siu'' pork.Hsiung, Deh-Ta. Simonds, Nina. Lowe, Jason.

005 ''005'' (pronounced "''double-o five''") is a 1981 arcade video game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings. ...

''The Food of China: A Journey for Food Lovers''. Bay Books. . p. 24. They are served as a type of

dim sum Dim sum () is a large range of small Chinese dishes that are traditionally enjoyed in restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum dishes are commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, although dim sum dishes also exist in other Chinese cu ...

during ''

yum cha ''Yum cha'' is the Cantonese tradition of breakfast or brunch involving Chinese tea and dim sum. The practice is popular in Cantonese-speaking regions, including Guangdong province, Guangxi province, Hong Kong, and Macau. It is also carried out ...

'' and are sometimes sold in

Chinese bakeries Chinese bakery products ( or ) consist of pastries, cakes, snacks, and desserts of largely Chinese origin, though some are derived from Western baked goods. Some of the most common "Chinese" bakery products include mooncakes, sun cakes (Beijing ...

.''

Varieties

There are two major kinds of ''cha siu bao'': the traditional steamed version is called () or simply (), while the baked variety is usually called (). Steamed ''cha siu bao'' has a white exterior, while the baked variety is browned glazed.

Cantonese cuisine

03 Steamed Roast Pork Bun - M Noodle Shop

Although visually similar to other types of steamed ''

'', the dough of steamed ''cha siu bao'' is unique since it makes use of both

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...

and

baking powder Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. The base and acid are prevented from reacting prematurely by the inclusion of a buffer such as cornstarch. Baking powder is used to increas ...

as leavening. This unique mix of leavening gives the dough of ''cha siu bao'' the texture of a slightly dense, but fine soft bread. Tangzhong, a water roux, is sometimes used to keep the bread soft over long periods of time and aids in improving the texture of the bao. An alternative version of the steamed char siu bao is a baked version. While the dough is very similar, the baked char siu bao is more similar to a baked bun with the same ''char siu'' filling. It is often coated with an egg and sugar wash before baking, resulting in a slightly sweeter, more bready char siu bao. Encased in the center of the bun is tender, sweet, slow-roasted pork tenderloin. This ''cha siu'' is diced, and then mixed into a syrupy mixture of

oyster sauce Oyster sauce describes a number of sauces made by cooking oysters. The most common in modern use is a viscous dark brown condiment made from oyster extracts,The Times, 22 January 1981; ''Cook Accidentally on purpose'' sugar, salt and water, thi ...

hoisin Hoisin sauce is a thick, fragrant sauce originating in China. It features in many Chinese cuisines, but is most prominent in Cantonese cuisine. It can be used as a glaze for meat, an addition to stir fry, or as dipping sauce. It is dark-coloure ...

sauce, roasted sesame seed oil,

rice vinegar Rice vinegar is a vinegar made from rice wine in East Asia (China, Japan and Korea), as well as in Vietnam in Southeast Asia. It is used as a seasoning, dressing, and dipping in many dishes, including sushi, jiaozi, and banchans. Some of its varia ...

shaoxing wine Shaoxing wine (alternatively spelled ''Shaohsing'', ''Hsiaohsing'', or ''Shaoshing'') is a variety of Chinese ''Huangjiu'' ("yellow wine") made by fermenting glutinous rice, water, and wheat-based yeast. It is produced in Shaoxing, in the Zheji ...

or dry

sherry Sherry ( ) is a fortified wine produced from white grapes grown around the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sherry is a drink produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versio ...

soy sauce Soy sauce (sometimes called soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of China, Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermentation (food), fermented paste of soybeans, roasted cereal, grain, brine, and ''Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''A ...

, sugar, and cornstarch.

Philippine cuisine

''Siopao'' (; ), literally meaning "hot bun", is the

Philippine The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

indigenized version of

. A common variant of the ''siopao'', the ''siopao asado'', is derived from the ''char siu bao'' and has a filling (''

asado ' () is the technique and the social event of having or attending a barbecue in various South American countries: especially Argentina, Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul), Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay where it is also a traditional eve ...

'') which uses similar ingredients to ''

char siu ''Char siu'' () is a Cantonese-style barbecued pork. Originating in Guangdong, it is eaten with rice, used as an ingredient for noodle dishes or in stir fries, and as a filling for '' cha siu bao'' or pineapple buns. Five-spice powder is t ...

''. It differs in that the Filipino ''asado'' is a braised dish, not grilled, and is more similar in cooking style to the Hokkien ''

tau yu bak Tau (; uppercase Τ, lowercase τ or \boldsymbol\tau; ) is the nineteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless dental or alveolar plosive . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 300. The name in English is p ...

'' (). It is slightly sweeter than ''char siu'' and can also be cooked with chicken. ''Siopao'' is also typically much larger than the ''char siu bao'' or the ''baozi''.

Polynesian cuisine

At the invitation of the European powers, the

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

were recruited as indentured laborers throughout in the Pacific to work on sugar plantations starting in the mid-1800s. Chinese immigrants brought with them foods such as ''char siu bao'' which they adapted to their new location. In

Hawaiian cuisine The cuisine of Hawaii incorporates five distinct styles of food, reflecting the diverse food history of settlement and immigration in the Hawaiian Islands, primarily originating from Polynesian, North American and East Asian cuisines. In t ...

, it is called ''manapua''.

Hawaiian pidgin Hawaiian Pidgin (known formally in linguistics as Hawaiʻi Creole English or HCE and known locally as Pidgin) is an English-based creole language spoken in Hawaiʻi. An estimated 600,000 residents of Hawaii speak Hawaiian Pidgin natively and ...

for "delicious pork thing". In

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

, the item is referred to as ''keke pua'a'', literally meaning "pig cake". In

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

, they are called ''chao pao''.

Vietnamese cuisine

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, the item is called ''xíu páo''. It originally came from Guangdong and Chaozhou following a fairly large overseas Chinese community living in

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

street in Nam Dinh, Vietnam. Ingredients for baking mainly include flour, meat, eggs, flour, lard and some typical spices depending on the family recipe. To make delicious cakes, people often marinate pork tenderloin with minced garlic, fivespice, oyster oil, honey and then baked until it turns golden brown and is fragrant. Char siu meat is diced and mixed with wood ear mushroom, pork fat and a whole boiled quail egg, with the addition of a salted egg yolk in some variants. The word "xíu páo" is considered to be transliterated Cantonese or Hokkien.

References