The Varied Yet Equalizing Cha Siu Bao (BBQ Pork Bun)

Cha siu bao consists of a bun (bao) stuffed with cha siu , or barbecue pork (literally, "charred on a spit"). Moving from Toronto to Victoria, it was one of the dishes I most craved from back East. When I asked my mom how to make it, she said, "oh, you just buy a jar of sauce and put it on the pork." So how did cha siu bao get from its humble beginnings to become, not just jarified, but to be one of the most popular Chinese dishes in North America?

Image from tasteasianfood.com.

Cha siu bao (like other types of bao) is believed to be invented by Zhuge Liang (ca. 181-234 CE), a famous Chinese engineer, scholar, regent, and military strategist who needed a portable food for his armies. (His less important inventions include a wheelbarrow, a repeating crossbow, and a hot air balloon for military signaling.)

Perhaps the most popular and familiar type is steamed cha siu bao served during dim sum (pictured above). This kind of cha siu bao is smaller (about 2 inches in diameter) and boasts a bright white, fluffy dough on the outside and diced cha siu, tossed in a mouth-watering sauce, on the inside. These buns are often cooked and served in bamboo steamers with parchment squares on the bottom to prevent sticking. Careful—even if the bao's outside is cool enough to eat, the centre can still burn your tongue!

Baked cha siu bao comes with a glazed, golden-brown top. You can find this on-the-go breakfast or snack in grocery stores and Chinese bakeries (such as Victoria BBQ House & Bakery or Wah Lei Yuen here in Victoria) and sometimes at dim sum too. The latter kind is often called cha siu chan bao, so named because it resembles a dinner roll or chan bao, to distinguish it from the steamed variety.

From left to right: baked cha siu bao, Hawaiian pork manapua, and Taiwanese gua bao. Images from erecipeessearch.com, aloha-hawaii.com, and seriouseats.com respectively.

Although cha siu bao is a staple of Cantonese and Hong Kong cuisine, other Asian and Polynesian cuisines have their versions too. Japan has the nikuman while Hawaii has the manapua, a shortened version of mea ʻono puaʻa, or "delicious pork thing." (The term has since expanded to include any meat-filled or bean-paste-filled bun made with the same dough, much like how bao has become a generalized term for the same.) The Taiwanese gua bao, although not necessarily descended from cha siu bao, is nevertheless similar: it features marinated pork belly finished with pickled mustard greens, coriander, and ground peanuts. The most noticeable difference, however, is the bao itself, which remains open in the Taiwanese version but is generally sealed in Chinese bao. In Victoria, you can find gua bao downtown at Bao or at Lee's House Restaurant in the Shelbourne/Mackenzie area.

Cha siu bao is traditionally a humble dish, but it has made its way into more upscale restaurants such as Canoe in Toronto and Momofuku in Manhattan. Writing about his Momofuku's most acclaimed dish, David Chang shows off his trademark wit and self-effacing sense of humour:

"if Momofuku is 'famous' for something, it's these steamed pork buns. Are they good? They are. Are they something that sprang from our collective imagination like Athena out of Zeus's forehead? Hell no. They're just our take on a pretty common Asian food formula: steamed bread + tasty meat = good eating."

Chang describes asking for the secret to his cha siu bao and arrives, to his surprise, at the kitchen of May May Foods, a "local company that supplied dozens of New York restaurants with premade dim sum items." Maybe the anticlimax is only fitting since, even from its fabled roots, the cha siu bao was shaped as much by convenience as by flavour. As a more modern example of its handiness, I often make this dish as a way to use up leftover cha siu.

You can find many recipes on the internet, each with their own spin, such as pickled cucumbers or toasted sesame seeds. Every recipe has its own take on the sauce or the cut of pork to use (e.g. belly, tenderloin, or shoulder). This recipe is my go-to but these also look interesting. Whatever your preference, cha siu bao is, and always will be, a surefire crowd-pleaser—even if the sauce comes in a jar.