Hey,
One day I was going to make char siu (Cantonese pork) but was unsure what to put in the marinade, and how much.
I have about 300g pork belly slices (so it will do 2 meals for me), reckon frying it would be fine
dark soy sauce
oyster sauce
garlic
ginger
chilli flakes
granulated sugar
Do you think something like that would work as a marinade? Often honey rather than sugar is suggested but I dont have any. I'm also unsure how much to use of each ingredient
Thank you!

There a thousands of recipes for Cha Sue and this one will do fine.
Two tablespoons of the sauces, a heaped teaspoon of chopped garlic, chilli flakes and ginger, 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Honey is better, but if you haven't got any, sugar is fine. Alternatively you could use ginger syrup.
Leave it a night in the fridge to marinate.
Don't forget to baste the meat regularly to prevent if from drying out.

Thanks very much! Sounds great.
When you said "a heaped teaspoon of chopped garlic, chilli flakes and ginger" do you mean one of each or a mixture of them all to make 1tsp?
I'll make it up tomorrow

I'd be using Hoi Sin rather than Oyster sauce.

Also a bit of red food colouring for that 'authentic' tinge.

A heaped teaspoon of each.
Red food colouring indeed adds that "authentic" red look.

Good luck with the preparation.

Do you mean teaspoons? Two tablespoons sounds like an awful lot.

I wondered that too
Just bought oyster sauce today actually, though I remembered I already had 'fish sauce' AFAIK, something like Teriyaki sauce is a mix of soy sauce, mirin and other things but I think thats Japanese?
Might get some hoi sin sauce anyway?

You need it to get that sweet sticky glaze and to contrast the salty sauces. But you can always use less off course. As long as the sweet/salty balance it is all right for your taste.

There's a fab char siu marinade you can buy.

A Tesco near me in the ethnic section was selling it recently but can be found in most chinese supermarkets.

I've used the marinade on lamb ribs and chicken wings - delicious.

It's this one.

Doesn't the hoi sin give it the red tinge without adding food colouring? I quite often make red-cooked chicken wings or red-cooked veg and never add food colouring. Unless its the chilli bean sauce that adds the red

I'd say it was the chili bean sauce. The hoi sins i've bought have been black/very dark brown.
Certain chinese chillis would also add the colour. Maybe some paprika as an alternative.

The main flavour of Char Sui comes from Hoi Sin Sauce and crushed Yellow Bean Paste.

It also needs sugar, salt, MSG and Chinese Cooking Wine.