Char siu otherwise known as barbecued meat (usually pork) in China or Chinese-flavored barbecued meat outside China, is a popular way to flavor and prepare 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....

 in Cantonese cuisine

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...

. It is classified as a type of siu mei

Siu mei

Siu mei is the generic name, in Cantonese cuisine, given to meats roasted on spits over an open fire or a huge wood burning rotisserie oven. It creates a unique, deep barbecue flavor that is usually enhanced by a flavorful sauce . Shops selling these meats are commonly found in Chinese-speaking...

, Cantonese roasted meat. It is listed at number 28 on World's 50 most delicious foods readers' poll complied by CNN Go in 2011.
Pork cut used for Char siu can vary, but it uses a few main cuts:

• Pork loin
  Pork loin
  Pork loin is a cut of meat from a pig, created from the tissue along the top of the rib cage. It is very popular in the United States, where it is usually grilled or baked. Pork loins are also sold soaking in marinade. Pork Loin can be used to make many different foods; such as bacon...
  
  
• Pork belly
  Pork belly
  Pork belly is a boneless cut of fatty meat derived from the belly of a pig. Pork belly is popular in Asian cuisine, and forms a part of many traditional European dishes such as the Alsatian Choucroute garnie, the Swiss Berner Platte, and the German Schlachtplatte...
  
   - produces juicy and fatter Char siu
• Pork butt - produces leaner Char siu

"Char siu" literally means "fork burn/roast" (Char being fork (both noun and verb) and siu being burn/roast) after the traditional cooking method for the dish: long strips of seasoned boneless pork are skewered with long forks and placed in a covered oven or over a fire.
The meat, typically a shoulder cut of domestic pork (although in ancient times wild boar and other available meats were also used), is seasoned with a mixture of honey

Honey

Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...

, five-spice powder

Five-spice powder

Five-spice powder is a mixture of five spices endemic to Chinese cuisine, but also used in other Asian cookery as well.-Formulae:The formulae are based on the Chinese philosophy of balancing the yin and yang in food. There are many variants. The most common is bajiao , cloves, cinnamon, huajiao ...

, fermented tofu

Pickled tofu

Fermented bean curd also called sufu, fermented tofu, tofu cheese, or preserved tofu is a form of processed, preserved tofu used in East Asian cuisine as a condiment made from soybeans...

 (red), dark 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...

, hoisin sauce

Hoisin sauce

Hoisin sauce, or haixian sauce, is a Chinese dipping sauce. The word hoisin is a romanization of the Chinese word for seafood "" as pronounced in Cantonese.-Ingredients:...

, red food colouring (not a traditional ingredient but very common in today's preparations) and 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....

 or rice wine

Huangjiu

Huangjiu is a type of Chinese beverage brewed directly from grains such as rice, millet, or wheat. Unlike baijiu, such liquors are not distilled, and contain less than 20% alcohol, due to the inhibition of fermentation by ethanol at that concentration...

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