Char Siu - Cantonese BBQ'd Pork

Don and I made this for the first time just last month. Up until this point I thought the only way to make this was from pre-made powder sauce packets etc. It just seemed too complicated to try to make from scratch and I wasn't the biggest fan of the results from the packets. Then I found this post about it, on none other than our favorite Chinese food blog, Appetite for China! (I've been copying out more of her recipes recently b/c I've been having issues accessing her site for some reason. It' been glitchy and won't load...)I watched the video, and it turns out it wasn't so bad at all! I watched a couple of other videos and read a few other recipes for it, but this one still seemed the easiest to do without hunting down a bunch of extra ingredients. We tried them in sandwiches a couple of times, done up like the pork in this recipe(found the buns in the freezer section of our Chinese market, only a couple of dollars) and it was really a simplified quick and easy way to have a Cha Siu Bao without having to make everything else from scratch. :0) I liked them with the cilantro and we also did a couple with some sliced cucumber! Yum!
  

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb whole pork belly, skin removed (We prefer using pork loin, less fatty. I've read some people use pork butt for the same reason.)
• 2 Tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry (Found some cooking rice wine at our local Chinese market. I have heard you can substitute this for apple or orange juice. Also saw something about using vinegar sugar and a dash of lemon juice?)
• 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp sugar (I read one variation that used agave sweetener instead of sugar, wonder how that would taste?)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp hoisin sauce (This is a Chinese BBQ sauce, sweeter than traditional western BBQ sauces)
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder (Definitely can be found in Chinese markets - we got ours at a World Market.)
• 2 Tbsp honey 

PREPARATION:

1. Marinate the pork belly: In a large bowl, mix together the rice wine, dark soy sauce, sugar, garlic, hoisin sauce and fice spice powder. Rub the pork belly with the marinade mixture and marinate for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. (We usually set a large ziploc bag in the bowl and do everything in that instead, makes for less mess and much easier clean-up. Also makes it easier to 'rub' everything together.) 
2. Preheat the oven to 325.
3. Hold up the pork for a few seconds to allow excess marinade to drip off, then place the pork in a roasting pan. Brush the top with the honey. (Make sure to either spray and or line pan with tin foil, this can make quite a big sticky mess as it cooks.) Roast the pork for about 45 min, flipping over the pork belly half-way through and brushing honey on the other side. The pork is done when the outsides begin to crisp and blacken and the center of the pork belly strip feels firm.
4. Remove the pork from oven and let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into thin slices. Arrange the slices on a plate and serve.