How to make Vietnamese sar chiu meat sandwich

Hello and welcome to Omi’s kitchen!

Vietnamese sandwich is something I can eat everyday. This one is a combination of French origin (baguette), Chinese taste (Char siu) and the creative mind of the Vietnamese. One of the rare food of Vietnam that does not require broth. Yeah, I know. We have all types of noodle soups and I just can’t get enough. Nom nom.

Also, this is just an approximation, feel free to adjust it a bit up to your taste. Some Southern Vietnamese would want to put more sugar (Baby I know!). What makes a good chef is the ability to understand the taste of each ingredient and adjust to bring the best mixture. (I know, I should’ve studied philosophy)

So, to start, what needs to be prepared:

For the Char siu: (you can also eat it with rice or steam bun)

1 kg pork butt (NOT the belly, too much fat)
2 tblsp soy sauce
1 teas sugar
1 tblsp. honey
2 cloves garlic, chopped up coarsely and crushed
½ teasp 5-spice mix

Instructions

Cut the pork into smaller size like this. Mix everything else into a marinade.
Marinate the pork for 3-6 hours. You can put them in the fridge if it’s hot in the room.
You can use a pan and fry it if you don’t have an oven. Remember to check and turn the pork frequently. Don’t use too much heat. Lower the temp after color changes and turn the side of the pork. Wait until the pork has the same color as this and look caramel on the side, turn off the stove.
If using oven, pre-heat oven to 250°C. Line the bottom of a dripping pan or similar dish with foil, and fill with water (this is to catch the drippings, and reflect heat). On an oven rack in the upper half of the oven, line up the cuts of pork and cook them for 20 minutes, putting the dripping pan just underneath (if you have a roasting rack and pan, you can just line the pan with foil and put the pork on the rack). By now, the pork should be cooked (check this before moving on to the next phase).
After this, switch to medium broiling, and brush them with half the marinade, and let the pork caramelise for 10 minutes. Basically, you’re waiting for the sugar in the sauce to caramelise: when it does, the pork will go from being vaguely brownish to a brighter, deeper colour tinged with red (it won’t look as red as the picture, though, that’s just the flash playing tricks).
This is where you absolutely have to keep an eye on what’s going on in your oven: the margin between caramelised and burnt is very thin, and you don’t want to be on the wrong side… It’s a fairly fast process (5-10 minutes).
When the bits of meat start being done, turn them over, brush the exposed side with the rest of the marinade, and wait again for the caramelisation process to happen. Depending on your oven, you might have to do this in several passes. Feel free to remove the bits of meat that look done as they look done–in my oven (which is very small), the caramelisation doesn’t happen at the same time for every chunk of meat, and I’d rather have the bits of meat a touch cold rather than charred black…
Remove pork from oven, and cut into slices to serve.