Char siu

Allergens at a glance

• UsuallySoySoy sauce, hoisin sauce and red fermented bean curd in the marinade.
• UsuallyGlutenSoy sauce and hoisin are usually made with wheat; buns and noodles served with it.
• OftenSesameMany hoisin sauces contain sesame paste; some marinades add sesame oil.
• SometimesEggsEgg noodles in char siu noodle soups and lo mein; not in the pork itself.
• SometimesMolluscsOyster sauce goes into many restaurant and home marinades.

Usually in the standard recipe. Often in many versions. Sometimes in some kitchens, or a cross-contact risk.

Diets

• Not halal: it's pork, and the marinade usually contains rice wine or Chinese rose wine.
• Not vegetarian; roast meat shops hang and chop all their meats together.
• Not suitable for coeliacs (celiacs): the soy sauce and hoisin in the glaze contain wheat.

Recipes change from kitchen to kitchen. If you have an allergy, confirm every ingredient with the restaurant before you order.

What is char siu?

Char siu is Cantonese roast pork with a sticky, dark-red glaze and charred edges, sliced and served over rice, in noodles or inside steamed buns. The name means "fork roast", from the long forks once used to hold the meat over a fire. It's one of the siu mei (roast meats) hanging in the window of Cantonese barbecue shops from Guangzhou and Hong Kong to Chinatowns everywhere.

What's in it

Strips of pork shoulder (neck end) or belly are marinated, roasted and basted, then glazed again at the end. The marinade typically includes:

• Soy sauce, light and dark
• Hoisin sauce
• Red fermented bean curd (南乳, nam yu), which gives the traditional red colour and a savoury depth
• Sugar, honey or maltose for the shiny glaze
• Five-spice, garlic and rice wine or Chinese rose wine (mei kuei lu chiew)

Many shops now get the red colour from food colouring rather than bean curd. Japanese chashu, the pork on ramen, shares the name but is braised in soy sauce rather than roasted.

Allergens and diets

Soy is certain: soy sauce, hoisin (built on fermented soybean paste) and fermented bean curd are all soy.

Gluten comes with them. Standard soy sauce is brewed with wheat, and common hoisin sauces contain wheat flour. The dishes char siu is served in add more: char siu bao buns are wheat dough, and noodle soups use wheat noodles, often egg noodles too (eggs).

Sesame is the easy one to miss. Many hoisin sauces list sesame paste, and some kitchens add sesame oil to the marinade or the sauce poured over the rice. Many cooks also add oyster sauce to the marinade, which brings molluscs.

Roast meat shops chop everything on the same board with the same cleaver, and the sauce ladled over your rice is often a mix of drippings from several meats.

On the menu

Char siu is 叉烧 in simplified characters and 叉燒 in traditional, which is what you'll see in Hong Kong and most overseas Cantonese shops. Words that go with it:

• 叉燒飯 cha siu faan: on rice
• 叉燒包 cha siu baau: steamed bun, a dim sum staple
• 燒味 siu mei: roast meats
• 雙拼 seung ping: two meats on one plate, often with roast duck (燒鴨) or crispy pork belly (燒肉)
• 蜜汁 mat zap: honey glazed
• 半肥瘦 bun fei sau: half fat, half lean, the most popular cut

Hong Kong menus use Cantonese pronunciation, so staff there will recognise "char siu" more readily than the Mandarin chāshāo.

Last checked 1 November 2026. Spotted something wrong? Email support@inventum.com.au.