00:00Good morning, welcome to Chaiwan, eastern edge of Hong Kong Island.
00:09We're here at Sun Gui Heung, probably the best char siu in town.
00:14Let's see what's happening at the back.
00:18Welcome to the kitchen.
00:21So chefs are putting together the char siu.
00:24They're skewering it with these metal skewers that are going to allow them to hang inside
00:29of that vertical oven.
00:30Skewering the pork on the thicker end so that they can hang, cook, render.
00:36Skewering the pork this way allows them to cook relatively evenly since they're cut into
00:40thick slabs.
00:42In most of American butchery, it all comes from one part of the pig, but actually there's
00:46a lot of texture differentiation, whether it's fattiness, leanness, but also the crispness
00:51and I suppose the snappiness of that type of pork.
00:54A little bit of soaked newspaper on the top of the char siu to stop it from burning.
00:59All of this is to control the temperature to affect the final texture of the char siu.
01:05All the char siu is inside of the oven.
01:07All the different cuts you can see.
01:08Chef has linked some of it together as a little bit of manipulation because at the end of
01:12the day, the cooking is constant, the fire is constant.
01:14So the way that this cooks is entirely dependent on the positioning of the pork, whether it's
01:19lower close to the flame, which is actually a little bit cooler, or it's hotter over the
01:22top.
01:23This is what he's making.
01:24He says the leaner cuts towards the top, the fattier cuts towards the bottom.
01:27You want low temperature to render out all that fat, but the leaner cuts can actually
01:31take a little bit more heat and they can cook a little bit longer.
01:33This is going to be the first 25 to 30 minutes or so, and then he's going to check, flip
01:37them over, rotate a little bit, and then readjust, add maltose, so on and so forth.
01:45These guys open for business at 8, but it really starts to get busy around lunchtime.
01:50It's almost 5 o'clock.
01:55Oh my goodness.
01:57First roast is done.
02:16So this is the leaner parts.
02:17This is the part that's going to be a little bit drier, but less fatty.
02:20Down here, this is the first cut.
02:22Over here, there's the fattier bits, super tender, encased in a little bit of fat.
02:27I mean, this is all the range of texture.
02:29You can start to see it come together as the char siu is being cooked.
02:32A little bit of char, that's part of the charm.
02:34He's letting it rest for a couple of minutes before it goes inside of the maltose.
02:37It's going to cool down.
02:38It's going to glaze, and it's going to go back inside of the oven for that final glaze.
02:43There you go.
02:45Maltose glaze.
02:46Maltose, also known as malt sugar, is an alternative to honey in a lot of places,
02:51but that is the original sugar used to glaze char siu.
02:54When you're adding maltose to the char siu, it's going to glaze the outside,
02:58and it's going to cling onto the pork a little bit better than honey.
03:02Maltose gives it a nice, clear, crisp glisten.
03:06Dude, this is so sexy.
03:08Jesus Christ.
03:11That maltose is so thick, it's going to cling to the char siu as it roasts,
03:15even at slightly higher temperatures.
03:17It's going to caramelize on the outside.
03:19It might pick up a little bit of char, it might burn just a little bit,
03:21but that's crisp, and that's what us Hong Kong people like.
03:25Now's the time for the second cook of the char siu.
03:27These skewers positioned at different parts of the pork are going to keep everything flat
03:32so that he can get as consistent of a cook as he can.
03:36The chef's starting to marinate the char siu for the day.
03:38The first roast is actually meat that's been marinated the night before.
03:42So sugar.
03:44There goes some salt.
03:46A little bit of five-spice. Five-spice being those warming spices.
03:48Cinnamon, clove, anise, so into loads.
03:52A little bit of sand ginger powder.
03:54Everything mixed together like a dry rub.
03:58So this is soybean paste.
04:00In Cantonese barbecue restaurants, this is known as sam cheong, raw sauce.
04:04But really, it's a fermented soybean paste that has been all brised until it's smooth.
04:08And here comes a little bit of additional rose wine.
04:11This is sorghum wine infused with a little bit of rose.
04:15That rose wine gives it a little bit of light floralness to bolster that sweetness.
04:18Along with everything else inside of the sauce, it becomes a very sweet and savory profile.
04:23That savoriness comes primarily from soybeans.
04:26The key here is to get everything even.
04:28It's a combination of a dry and a wet rub.
04:30This marinade time is so important for that pork to be juicy.
04:34Do you know that when I first wanted to learn how to cook,
04:39when I was 16 years old,
04:42I learned how to make Sichuan cuisine at the Ming Po factory in Chai Wan.
04:47That's when I started to eat your food.
04:50That was more than 20 years ago.
04:52How old were you when you started?
04:54I was around 10 years old.
04:56You said you'd been doing this for over 40 years.
04:58Until now.
04:59You were very young.
05:01I was over 60.
05:04Oh, hello.
05:05Okay, char siu is coming out of the oven.
05:06It's been 50 minutes-ish of total cooking time over char siu the entire time.
05:11You can see that dark black char.
05:13It's going to give a little bit of crunch, a little bit of crispiness.
05:15That maltose has really done what it's supposed to do.
05:18This bright red is a sign of proper charcoal grilled char siu.
05:22Chef now is going to trim a little bit of that black charcoal off.
05:25Because at the end of the day, the burnt bits are burnt.
05:28It's a little bit bitter.
05:29So he's going to trim it a little bit and then bring it outside for all the world to see.
05:33First char siu of the day.
05:51And we can take a look at how chef is cutting it.
05:53Actually, this cutting of the char siu is so important because he is the selector.
05:59He's a curator of the meat experience.
06:02Chef here is going to make a plate of all four cuts just for us to see the difference in texture.
06:07But the key to getting the type of char siu that you want is to communicate and tell them how fatty you want it.
06:12And if you really know what the specific cut of char siu you like is.
06:24Is this the second cut?
06:26Second cut.
06:28Snappy.
06:29First cut.
06:39I shouldn't know exactly what this tastes like because I've been eating here for so long.
06:42But that is just...
06:44It doesn't get better than this.
06:46I'm so glad we shoot in the morning.
06:48First char siu that comes out of the oven and we get it.
06:51So snappy. So sweet.
06:53Just so like...
06:55It's not honey.
06:57Imagine eating a whole spoon of honey.
06:59It's so sweet.
07:01But the maltose is such a gentle glaze.
07:04For most people, first timers here.
07:06Best thing to order is if you can get it.
07:08First cut.
07:10That snappiness in this pork is really really special.
07:14There's only two pieces of this in each pig.
07:16Which means that it's a very very special juicy but snappy experience.
07:19Here it's called 三粒叉.
07:21Three bit char siu.
07:22Three pieces of lean meat with tendon and fat in between.
07:25If you want something a little bit leaner, less fatty.
07:27The lean pork at 新貴鄉 tender.
07:33I haven't seen this cut in many other places.
07:35This rib cap.
07:37It's a meat encased with a little bit of tendon.
07:39That gives it a little bit of chew.
07:41And then fat.
07:42When you eat this.
07:45It just melts away.
07:53For Cantonese people, Chinese people in general.
07:55Fatty but not greasy is really important.
07:58You can taste it melt away.
08:00But it's not cloying.
08:01It doesn't hang onto your palate too much.
08:03Perhaps this is me being biased.
08:05But as a Hong Kong person.
08:06Hong Kong really has perfected Cantonese barbecue.
08:09They've made it popular.
08:10They've made it democratic.
08:12A lot of places have made it really really consistent.
08:14But just in this store alone.
08:16The cuts and the type of marinade that they use is proprietary.
08:20These names.
08:21一片天,三粒叉.
08:23All of these things come specifically from this store.
08:26There's still this innovation that had happened in the last 60, 70 years in Hong Kong.
08:31Now the cooking of these meats is really complicated.
08:34So we don't do this at home.
08:35You get them at shops.
08:37This is called a 燒味舖.
08:38A Cantonese barbecue shop.
08:40Where they have the duck.
08:41The chicken.
08:42The goose.
08:43The roast pork.
08:44The barbecue pork.
08:45Now it's about 10, 10.30.
08:47All of the Taiwan neighbourhood locals are starting to come and get their meats for the day.
09:06I know this episode is all about 叉燒.
09:08But the real lunch.
09:10Cantonese barbecue lunch.
09:11Is a 碟口飯.
09:13Plate of rice.
09:14With 叉燒.
09:15And chicken.
09:17白切雞.
09:19叉燒 in its full, proper presentation.
09:21Is best served over rice.
09:24And that's 新貴香.
09:25Arguably the best 叉燒 in Hong Kong.
09:27It's the best.
09:28Because, number one.
09:29The freshness of the pork.
09:30Number two.
09:31The technique.
09:32And number three.
09:33Perhaps most importantly.
09:34The negotiation.
09:35Between the customer preference.
09:36And the specificity.
09:37At which they cut their pork.
09:38That's the texture.
09:39And that's the flavour.
09:40All in control.
09:41Through the discussion.
09:42Of the customer.
09:43With the people who are cooking.
09:44One of the best experiences we've had in Hong Kong so far.
09:46On to the next.
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