A friend of mine (who is similarly afflicted with a love of all things pork) made this recipe, which calls for cooking strips of pork hung from an S-hook in the top of the oven, with a tray of boiling water in the bottom of the oven providing steam. Sounds like a huge pain, but I'd be interested to see if anyone has experience making this dish (or anything else) with this technique.

I make char siu several times a year but have never hung it from a hook. I usually grill it or bake it on a rack set over a pan. I can tell you that homemade char siu will almost always be better than restaurant purchased because you can keep an eye on it and pull it out while the meat is tender but still moist. I find most restaurant versions a bit lacking.

What cut of pork do you use?

BTW, anyone ever do the roast pig (with that awesome crispy skin)?

Pork shoulder, sometimes tenderloin. My parents did a few experiments with the roast pork in their countertop rotisserie oven a number of years ago. They gave up after a bit because while they got the flavor perfected, the skin never got uniformly perfectly crispy.