Barbra Streisand Could Eat This Favorite Dish for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

With a resume that includes movies as versatile and extensive as "Meet the Parents," "Hello Dolly," and "The Way We Were"—not to mention her impressive vocal chops—it’s clear that Barbra Streisand has range. As we learn more about her favorite foods in the 970 pages of her bestselling 2023 memoir "My Name is Barbra," we’re quickly discovering that her menu does, too.

From her adoration of Philadelphia’s Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews to her devotion to English clotted cream (she once stopped a plane to ensure all travelers had Streisand’s preferred scone topping!) to her comforting semi-homemade meal that gives a nod to Southern cuisine, we can only imagine that Streisand would host one diverse and delicious dinner party.

Chances are high that if we might be lucky enough to get an invitation to dinner, lunch, breakfast, or even to be a road trip buddy, we would share one of Streisand’s favorite foods: Cha siu bao (sometimes spelled char siu bao).

“Cha siu bao, [is] a steamed bun filled with Cantonese-style roast pork,” Streisand writes in her memoir, introducing one of her culinary discoveries as she traveled the globe during a concert tour. “When I was in Australia in 2000 doing the Timeless concert, they had a Chinese restaurant in the hotel and I had cha siu bao for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

It wasn’t just during that trip that cha siu bao took centerstage on Streisand’s menu. It’s also one of her go-to road trip snacks. This detail was illuminated during an old CNN interview with Piers Morgan. Using her film "The Guilt Trip" as inspiration, in which her son (played by Seth Rogan) pitches the idea of a mother-son cross-country road trip, Piers Morgan asks, “Could you ever imagine doing a road trip with your son for a week?”

“Yeah, I could imagine doing that,” replies Streisand, who is the biological mom of one son, Josh, and the stepmom of three kids with her second husband, James Brolin. “I love traveling with him now on my tour…he brought his dog, I brought my dog and we ate cha siu bao together.”

What Is Cha Siu Bao?

Cha siu baos are baked or steamed buns that are stuffed with salty-savory-sweet Cantonese barbecue pork. They come in two forms: baked, which are staples at many Chinese bakeries, and steamed, which you’ll frequently find on the menu at dim sum restaurants.

Both styles are stuffed with cha siu pork (often pork neck or shoulder), which is marinated in a sweet barbecue sauce and then roasted or cooked over coals. The meat marinade packs a bit of spice to compliment the salty and sweet elements, and the pork itself delivers loads of savory notes, so the meat alone checks all the flavor boxes. Cha siu pork is of course enjoyed on its own, often with a side of vegetables and steamed rice or noodles, or it’s tucked inside one of the two aforementioned bao bun styles.

How to Make Cha Siu Bao

Every cha siu bao recipe starts with the cha siu pork itself. Allrecipes fans declare this Char Siu “freakishly delicious” and “perfect every time.”

From there, you can proceed with a baked or steamed style of Streisand’s treasured meal/snack. 

To make steamed cha siu bao recipes, mix up mantou, a dense yeast dough. This is wrapped around shredded cha siu pork, which is often tossed with sliced green onions or shallots and a simple sauce. (Condiments like hoisin sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, and soy sauce are common players.)  Tuck a spoonful of the pork mixture inside the mantou dough, pinch the dough at the top, then cook the bao pinched-side-up in a steamer basket over boiling water for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on size.

To make baked cha siu bao, whip up a fluffy milk bread dough. Roll the dough out into about 5-inch rounds, then place a spoonful of the pork mixture in the center. Pull the sides of the dough up to meet, pinching to fully surround the pork filling. Place the bao, pinched-side-down, on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. The prepped baos require one more rise to reach their loftiest potential. Once they’ve doubled in size, brush the tops with an egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds, if desired. Bake in the oven until golden brown.

If you’d like to try one of Streisand’s favorite recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner (or travel snack), try Chef John’s Steamed Barbecue Pork Buns or these Char Siu Bao (Steamed BBQ Pork Buns).