Cha siu baau
Encyclopedia
Cha siu bao or char siu bao is a Cantonese
barbecue
-pork
-filled bun
(baozi). The buns are filled with barbecue-flavored cha siu pork
. They are served as a type of dim sum
during yum cha
and are sometimes sold in Chinese bakeries
.
Although visually similar to other types of steamed baozi
, the dough of steamed cha siu bao is unique since it makes use of both yeast
and baking powder
as leavening. This unique mix of leavening gives the dough of cha siu bao the texture of a slightly dense, but fine soft bread.
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
, hoisin sauce, roasted sesame seed oil, rice vinegar
, shaoxing wine
or dry sherry
, soy sauce
, sugar and cornstarch.
pidgin, the item is called Manapua. The word does not mean "chewed-up" (mana) "pork" (puaa), as its spelling suggests. Rather, the current form is a shortening of meaono-puaa, meaning "pork cake" (meaono meaning "cake"). In the U.S. mainland, the Chinese term is commonly used. The Chinese brought this dim sum
item with them when they were brought over as plantation workers.
This food usually consists of a white bun with a dark pink-colored diced pork filling. The Hawaiian version of the cha siu bao tends to be larger than its Chinese cousin and can be either steamed or baked. The red pork filling's dark pink color comes from marinating the pork with a very small amount of saltpeter
prior to slow roasting. The bun is occasionally baked, but more frequently steamed when it is made. Manapua has come to mean any meat-filled or bean-paste-filled bun made with the same dough as described above including locally created versions with hot dogs, curry
chicken
, kalua pig
, and even ube
(purple yam), which is a popular vegetarian version of the manapua. In Hawaii, freshly prepared or prepackaged frozen manapua may be found in dedicated bakeries, restaurants, and chain convenience stores.
Cantonese cuisine
Cantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong Province in southern China and is one of 8 superdivisions of Chinese cuisine. Its prominence outside China is due to the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country...
barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
-pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
-filled bun
Baozi
A bāozi or simply known as bao, bau, humbow, nunu, bausak, pow or pau is a type of steamed, filled bun or bread-like item in various Chinese cuisines, as there is much variation as to the fillings and the preparations...
(baozi). The buns are filled with barbecue-flavored cha siu pork
Char siu
Char siu , otherwise known as barbecued meat in China or Chinese-flavored barbecued meat outside China, is a popular way to flavor and prepare pork in Cantonese cuisine. It is classified as a type of siu mei, Cantonese roasted meat...
. They are served as a type of dim sum
Dim sum
Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates...
during yum cha
Yum cha
Yum cha , also known as Ban ming , is a Chinese style morning or afternoon tea, which involves drinking Chinese tea and eating dim sum dishes...
and are sometimes sold in Chinese bakeries
Chinese bakery
Chinese bakery products consists 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, egg tarts, and wife cakes....
.
Variety
There are two major kinds of cha siu bao: steamed and baked . Steamed cha siu bao has a white exterior, while its baked counterpart is browned and glazed.Cantonese cuisine
Cha siu refers to the pork filling; the word bao simply means "bun."Although visually similar to other types of steamed baozi
Baozi
A bāozi or simply known as bao, bau, humbow, nunu, bausak, pow or pau is a type of steamed, filled bun or bread-like item in various Chinese cuisines, as there is much variation as to the fillings and the preparations...
, the dough of steamed cha siu bao is unique since it makes use of both yeast
Yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...
and baking powder
Baking powder
Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent used to increase the volume and lighten the texture of baked goods such as muffins, cakes, scones and American-style biscuits. Baking powder works by releasing carbon dioxide gas into a batter or dough through an acid-base reaction, causing bubbles in...
as leavening. This unique mix of leavening gives the dough of cha siu bao the texture of a slightly dense, but fine soft bread.
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
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 sugar, salt and water thickened with cornstarch, flavoured with a little oyster essence or extract and some versions may be darkened with caramel, though high...
, hoisin sauce, roasted sesame seed oil, rice vinegar
Rice vinegar
Rice vinegar is a vinegar made from fermented rice or rice wine in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.-Chinese:Chinese rice vinegars are stronger than Japanese ones, and range in colour from clear to various shades of red and brown...
, shaoxing wine
Shaoxing wine
Shaoxing wine is one of the most famous varieties of huangjiu, or traditional Chinese wines, fermented from rice. It originates from the region of Shaoxing, in the Zhejiang province of eastern China. It is both drunk as a beverage as well as widely used in Chinese cuisine...
or dry sherry
Sherry
Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez , Spain. In Spanish, it is called vino de Jerez....
, soy sauce
Soy sauce
Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...
, sugar and cornstarch.
Hawaiian cuisine
In HawaiianHawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
pidgin, the item is called Manapua. The word does not mean "chewed-up" (mana) "pork" (puaa), as its spelling suggests. Rather, the current form is a shortening of meaono-puaa, meaning "pork cake" (meaono meaning "cake"). In the U.S. mainland, the Chinese term is commonly used. The Chinese brought this dim sum
Dim sum
Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates...
item with them when they were brought over as plantation workers.
This food usually consists of a white bun with a dark pink-colored diced pork filling. The Hawaiian version of the cha siu bao tends to be larger than its Chinese cousin and can be either steamed or baked. The red pork filling's dark pink color comes from marinating the pork with a very small amount of saltpeter
Potassium nitrate
Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula KNO3. It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrate ions NO3−.It occurs as a mineral niter and is a natural solid source of nitrogen. Its common names include saltpetre , from medieval Latin sal petræ: "stone salt" or possibly "Salt...
prior to slow roasting. The bun is occasionally baked, but more frequently steamed when it is made. Manapua has come to mean any meat-filled or bean-paste-filled bun made with the same dough as described above including locally created versions with hot dogs, curry
Curry
Curry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...
chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
, kalua pig
Kalua
Kālua is a traditional Hawaiian cooking method that utilizes an imu, a type of underground oven. The word kālua, which literally means "to cook in an underground oven", may also be used to describe the food cooked in this manner, such as kālua pig or kālua turkey, which are commonly served at luau...
, and even ube
Ube
Dioscorea alata, known as purple yam and many other names, is a species of yam, a tuberous root vegetable, that is bright lavender in color. It is sometimes confused with taro and the Okinawa sweet potato . With its origins in the Asian tropics, D...
(purple yam), which is a popular vegetarian version of the manapua. In Hawaii, freshly prepared or prepackaged frozen manapua may be found in dedicated bakeries, restaurants, and chain convenience stores.
See also
- Go Believe
- List of snack foods
- Manapua (HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
) - NikumanNikumanNikuman is a Japanese food made from flour dough, and filled with cooked ground pork or other ingredients. It is a kind of chūka man similar to the Chinese baozi , also known in English as pork buns.Nikuman are steamed and often sold as street food...
(JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
) - SiopaoSiopaoSiopao is a Hokkien term for bāozi , literally meaning "steamed buns". It has also been incorporated in to Thai cuisine where it is called salapao ....
(PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
) - Bánh baoBánh baoBánh bao is a ball-shaped dumpling with pork or chicken meat, onions, eggs, mushrooms and vegetables inside, in Vietnamese cuisine. The steamed bun often has ground pork or chicken, Chinese sausage, and a portion of a hard-boiled egg inside...
(VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
) - Komle (NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
)