char siu

It was my first time using the NOH char siu packet.

In Hawaii, our char siu is sweet and red.

I find that the red foods turn off a lot of people in Japan, not sure why though.

Japan's char siu is grey-ish brown and savory, but the red, sweet version is what I grew up on and love it.

The packet says to add water, but according to my mom (and she knows best), she says not to add the water, just dump the contents of the packet and marinade what you want...pork, chicken, both.

Since I only had one packet and needed to bake it on my oven's turntable, I did some pork spareribs and chicken drumettes.

The packet says to marinate for at least 4 hours but I let it marinate overnight.

The following morning, I baked them off following the directions on the packet and in about 40 minutes...voila!

My blog friend, Kim, tweeted that her dad often makes this sweet type of char siu, slices it thin and puts it in banh mi...so you know what I had for lunch yesterday??

> Banh Mi! minus the cilantro because I couldn't find some at the store.

(I actually found some at another store after lunch but wasn't willing to pay almost $2 for 1 stalk of cilantro!)

Since I had cooked bone-in pork spareribs, I took the meat off the bones and sliced them up for the sandwich.

I knew this was sandwich meant to happen because I had daikon and carrot in my refrig.

While the char siu baked, I whizzed some in my food processor and threw together the pickled veggies.

Then while the pickles soaked, I shopped for the baguette and cucumber for the sandwich.

Even without the cilantro, this sandwich was awesome, sweet sour and a little salty.

Then for dinner, I took some char siu chicken off the bone and shredded it for chinese chicken salad.

I also used okara chips because the taste resembles wonton chips.

Even though the weather is icy and cold, there was lots of comfort food and sunshine in my kitchen today.

NOTES: next time use boneless pork belly and boneless chicken, also buy more packets.