Cantonese BBQ: Char Siu, Roast Duck & Crispy Pork Belly

Cantonese BBQ, known as siu mei (燒味), is the glossy line-up of roast meats you see hanging in the windows of Cantonese restaurants: honey-glazed char siu, aromatic roast duck and pork belly with a crackling top. Each is roasted in large pieces, then chopped to order. At Neptune Palace's Vancouver location, our house-made BBQ is served daily from 10am to 3pm.

What counts as Cantonese BBQ?

Siu mei literally means "roasted flavours". It covers meats cooked by dry heat, in an oven or over a fire, as opposed to lou mei (滷味), meats simmered in a spiced master stock. In Guangdong and Hong Kong, the siu mei counter is an institution: a cook behind glass with a heavy cleaver, a row of ducks and slabs of pork on hooks, and a queue at lunchtime.

Three meats form the core of almost every counter, and they are the three on our menu:

• Char siu (叉燒), sweet-savoury roast pork.
• Roast duck (燒鴨), aromatic inside and lacquered outside.
• Crispy roast pork belly (燒肉), with a layer of puffed, crackling skin.

Char siu: the sweet one

Char siu means "fork-roasted", a reference to the old method of skewering strips of pork on long forks and holding them over a fire. Most kitchens now hang the strips on hooks in an oven, but the idea is unchanged.

The pork, often shoulder or a cut with a good ribbon of fat, is marinated in a mix that typically includes soy, sugar, rice wine, fermented bean curd and five-spice. Near the end of roasting it is brushed with honey or maltose, which caramelises into a sticky, slightly charred edge. The colour is a deep red-brown. Well-made char siu is tender, juicy and sweet without being cloying, and the charred corners are the best part.

Char siu is also the filling in char siu bao, the barbecue pork bun, which tells you how central it is to Cantonese cooking.

Roast duck: the aromatic one

Cantonese roast duck (燒鴨 siu aap) is often mistaken for Peking duck, but the approach is different. Before roasting, the cavity is filled with a marinade, commonly built on star anise, five-spice, ginger, scallion and sauces, then sewn closed. As the duck roasts, the seasoning steams the meat from the inside, so the flavour runs all the way through. The outside is glazed and dried beforehand so the skin roasts to a deep amber.

It is chopped on the bone, served with sweet-sour plum sauce, and the savoury juices from the cavity are spooned over rice. Where Peking duck is about the skin, Cantonese roast duck is about skin and meat together.

Crispy pork belly: the crunchy one

Siu yuk (燒肉) is pork belly roasted until its skin puffs into a golden, bubbled crackling that snaps under the cleaver. The meat beneath is seasoned, often with salt and five-spice, while the skin is pricked many times and dried so it blisters in the heat. Cut into neat cubes, each piece shows the layers: crackling, fat and lean.

Our version is called 冰燒三層肉, "ice-roast three-layer pork". Explanations of "ice-roast" differ; one common account links it to rock sugar (冰糖) in the seasoning, another to the glassy, ice-like crunch of the skin. Either way, the "three layers" are what you see on the board.

How do you eat Cantonese BBQ?

Siu mei is flexible. A few common ways:

• Over rice. Chopped meat on steamed rice, with the juices soaking in, is one of the great Cantonese lunches.
• In noodle soup. Roast duck with rice noodles in broth is a classic pairing.
• As a shared platter. At a dinner or celebration, a plate of mixed BBQ often opens the meal.
• With dim sum. A small plate of char siu or roast pork sits naturally among the steamers at yum cha.

Eat it soon after it is chopped. The crackling and glaze are at their best while still warm.

Cantonese BBQ at Neptune Palace

Our house-made BBQ (自制明爐燒味) is on the Vancouver menu daily from 10am to 3pm, alongside dim sum:

• Crispy Roast Pork Belly (冰燒三層肉, 601)
• Cantonese Roast Duck, quarter (明爐燒鴨, 602)
• Honey-Glazed Char Siu (蜜汁叉燒, 603)
• Roast Duck with Rice Noodles in Soup (明爐燒鴨湯瀨粉, 604)
• Char Siu on Steamed Rice (秘製叉燒飯, 605)

Join us at Marine Gateway for a weekday lunch or a weekend yum cha, and add a plate of BBQ to the table. If you are planning to visit our Burnaby location at Brentwood, please call (604) 566-0897 to check what is available that day. Prices change often, so please check in the restaurant.

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