Strange Char Siu question

[markk]

My local Chinese delivery place has excellent Char Siu, but only if you get it in something.

They make the fried rice to order, and it contains beautiful squares of fresh, delicious char siu. Ditto the roast pork chow fun - it contains full, beautiful slices of excellent roast pork (I know that slices are not typical for this dish, but the pork is great). But they don't just have the sliced roast pork on the menu; of course, they'll make whatever I ask for, but they just cannot do plain sliced char siu. It must come in some kind of sauce. I explain that I want it plain, and it comes either in a horrible brown gravy, or in some horrible sweet concoction. We've discussed this, and they explain that they have no other way to heat it.

So what do the noodle shops do? They serve it all the time. Any ideas?

[annachan]

At the restaurants where they serve Cantonese BBQ, Char Siu is usually served room temp/luke warm when order by itself or over rice/noodle. And Char Siu at the BBQ places are usually day of. Sounds like the restaurant you go to may not be serving fresh (day of) Char Siu if it requires heating up.

At home, if we can't finish the Char Siu and have to refrigerate it, there are several ways we heat it up if it's not put into noodle soup or fried rice. The way my grandmother used to heat it up is to stir fry it in the wok. She didn't put it into a sauce, but would add a little soy sauce and sugar to the Char Siu. It produced a nice caramelized flavor. If you don't want to add anything at all, we sometimes heat it up in the oven. That could run the risk of it drying out if left in for too long or if it's sliced really thinly. If in a pinch, there is the microwave, though not something I recommend.

[Tepee]

Char siu doesn't have to be served warm or hot. Noodle or rice shops I go to just take the slab of char siu off the skewer and slice the portion you want; they are never heated. And we don't get them in sweet sauce either, just a cursory spoonful of cooked oil and black soy sauce. I have to request for more sauce for the children before I can get any.

Puzzling indeed that the restaurant you go to is so stubborn in their ways. Perhaps their char siu isn't that great and they think they need some sauce to improve on the flavour. Make your own, it's easy.

[markk]

Perhaps their char siu isn't that great ...

It's excellent though.

And Char Siu at the BBQ places are usually day of. Sounds like the restaurant you go to may not be serving fresh (day of) Char Siu if it requires heating up.

←

I see what you're saying. It is really fresh looking, and tasting - and I've had lots of experience with restaurants serving really sorry-looking (and sorry tasting) stuff. This stuff looks and tastes really fresh, but I realized from your message that maybe they have it refrigerated. I simply never thought of that.

[hzrt8w]

So what do the noodle shops do?  They serve it all the time.  Any ideas?

←

Yeah, char siu are usually served, freshly BBQ'd, at room temperature. It seems that if the restaurant staff serve their char siu fresh they should be able to slice it and serve plain for you.

There seems to be no good way to re-heat char siu. To use left-over char siu I usually use them in fried rice or fried noodles - first slightly fry the char siu with some oil.

You can probably get them to sell you the char siu whole (not even sliced). Bring it home, use the oven to slowly heat it up to nice and hot. From my experience, if I re-heat char siu in a microwave, (especially char siu slices) the edges tend to get burnt and the heating is uneven.

[Dejah]

Leftover char siu in my restaurant was usually diced, julienned, sliced for use in fried rice, chow mein, Singapore rice noodles, wonto soups, etc. If the fresh batch is not ready when we need it for lunch, we can microwave quickly to use as appetizers. You should leave the piece whole, don't cover the container, then zap at short intervals. The reheat cycle works well.

Best way, of course, is to eat it fresh that day.

[Chris Amirault]

From what you've written, it seems that you could ask for it unheated, yes? Maybe they think you don't want it cold.

[annachan]

From what you've written, it seems that you could ask for it unheated, yes? Maybe they think you don't want it cold.

←

If it's been in the fridge, it's not a great idea to get it unheated.

[markk]

This has all been most, most helpful. Thank you all !!

I guess it hadn't dawned on me that they're keeping it refrigerated, that's the first thing.

I'm in Northern NJ just about one mile from midtown Manhattan, so I guess they get it from Chinatown in downtown - I know that most such restaurants go there on a daily basis, if for nothing else than that's where their staffs live.

I guess the best idea is to explain to them that I'll take it cold and experiment with heating it myself. Sadly, what I cannot get them to do is make me a green Chinese vegetable, because they don't have any there for themselves. Otherwise, some char siu and a leafy vegetable would be an ideal meal to me. At their other location, they used to save the dark leafy parts of the bok choy when they prepped it, and they'd sautee it up for me, something I'm quite fond of. But when they closed the other place and I started ordering from this one, I went in and did my best to convince them what I wanted, and the owner came over and said "Hi - so you're the guy we used to make the bok choy leaves for! We can't do that here, because we only get the white parts of the bok choy." Strange as that seems to me, I've had other Chinese restaurants tell me that.

Oh well.

And thank you all again - I learned a lot about this from your posts !!!

[Dejah]

I've never heard of a restaurant getting the "white part only" with bok choy. The bok choy for my ex-restaurant always came as whole plants in wooden cases. The choice part is the core of the bok choy. My mom used to get that part as the stalks are so tender.

Wait! Off topic here.

[hzrt8w]

[...]

I went in and did my best to convince them what I wanted, and the owner came over and said "Hi - so you're the guy we used to make the bok choy leaves for!  We can't do that here, because we only get the white parts of the bok choy."  Strange as that seems to me, I've had other Chinese restaurants tell me that.

←

That does sound kind of strange to me. As we are in California, most of the Chinese vegetables are so readily available around the year.

But I understand it may not be the case in other parts of USA.

May be you can suggest them to do BBQ pork / vegetable stir-fries with some non-Chinese green leaf vegetables. Such as lettuce. Which is pretty tasty for stir-fries too.

Edited December 8, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[sheetz]

That does seem pretty weird. Most Chinese restaurants that I've been to use baby bok choy anyway, so separating the leaves from the stalk would be pointless.

[markk]

[...]

I went in and did my best to convince them what I wanted, and the owner came over and said "Hi - so you're the guy we used to make the bok choy leaves for!  We can't do that here, because we only get the white parts of the bok choy."  Strange as that seems to me, I've had other Chinese restaurants tell me that.

←

That does sound kind of strange to me. As we are in California, most of the Chinese vegetables are so readily available around the year.

But I understand it may not be the case in other part of USA.

May be you can suggest them to do BBQ pork / vegetable stir-fries with some non-Chinese green leaf vegetables. Such as lettuce. Which is pretty tasty for stir-fries too.

←

Yes, I'm very familiar with stri-fried lettuce of all kinds (and I make it all the time in the context of Tuscan-like meals), and how I learned of it was from a fabulous Chinese restaurant that used to be right in the lobby of my high-rise, and which featured such things as steamed whole fresh fish, and all kinds of vegetables - in fact, that's where I discovered ong choy and most of the Chinese greens I love to this day - one night they were out of everything, and sauteed some dark lettuce and surprised me with it.

What's weird is that this place is actually a pretty low-end takeout place, and you really have to pick and choose carefully. So, why they should have such excellent char siu is really inconsistent, and a mystery. And how they're feeding their own staff of Chinese cooks withouth having green leafy vegetables to sautee may be an even bigger mystery! But if they're not having those things for themselves, I can't imagine why they'd have lettuce, though I can ask.