Best XO sauce in Hong Kong (2024)

FAQs

What is Cantonese XO sauce? ›

Developed in the 1980s in Hong Kong for Cantonese cuisine, XO sauce is made of roughly-chopped dried seafood, including dried scallops (conpoy), fish and shrimp, which are cooked with chilli peppers, onions and garlic. This dried seafood-based sauce resembles the Fujianese shacha sauce.

XO sauce is full of flavor, mainly due to the concentrated taste of the dried seafood. It offers some spice along with the rich taste of umami and is an amalgamation of flavors, including sweet, smoky, and salty. This is a condiment that will dominate a dish with its intense taste.

Per The Spruce Eats, the ingredients that go into making XO sauce, along with the laborious process of making it which can take a couple of hours, are what really make the condiment so costly. The Woks of Life pointed out that the price is largely dependent upon the quality of the seafood used.

A whole pile of good stuff, basically! Like dried scallops, dried shrimp and sometimes dried abalone, salty pork and aromatics of the garlic, shallots and chilli ilk. There's saltiness from soy, sweetness from sugar, the richness of shaoxing wine, and a deeply savoury edge from the dried seafood.

Mineral-wise, Xo Sauce is a potent source of Sodium, with 2124.0mg per 100g. Additionally, it offers Potassium, Magnesium, and Calcium, which are vital for heart function, muscle contractions, and bone health respectively.

Make-Ahead and Storage. XO sauce can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to one month. For storing, make sure to keep the solids in the sauce submerged in the oil, so that they don't dry out.

It's so flavor-packed that you really need just a few fresh ingredients to mix with the XO sauce. Now, what do you do with it? SO MANY THINGS. In Red Hot Kitchen, I have recipes for noodles, chicken stir-fries, steamed fish, veggies, a flatbread pizza, and more.

XO sauce is a popular condiment made from dried seafood and Chinese ham, often used in Cantonese cuisine. The sauce is considered a liquid and falls under the restrictions on liquids and gels for carry-on luggage on flights.

Oyster Sauce is made from boiled down oysters and is a pretty smooth sauce. It has a salty, sweet flavorful profile. XO sauce is made from a variety of dried seafood (like and scallops and shrimp and stuff) mixed with chilis. It's got a seafoody flavor with heat and is chunky in texture.

What is the most sold sauce in the world? ›

Tomato ketchup doesnt need much of an introduction seeing as it is considered the most popular dipping sauce around the world.

“XO” is actually a Hong Kong shorthand for high-quality, prestige, and luxury. Think about the price of fresh shrimp and scallops, and then think about taking all of that luscious seafood, drying it, and then making it into a jar of sauce.

SIGNATURE VIETNAMESE SATE XO SAUCE. A combination of Fresh Ground Lemongrass, Garlic, Onion, Dried Chilies Flakes, Ground Chili, Salt, Sugar, Dried Shrimp & Annatto Seed Oil. A sauce that is loaded with big & bold southeast Asian.

Chilli is another star of XO, although the sauce is not supposed to be unbearably spicy. Rather, the dried and fresh chillies should add a smokiness and zing, elevating the other ingredients, rather than overpowering them. “XO is primarily supposed to be aromatic, rather than in-your-face hot,” Frank says.

Cantonese sauce is a sweet and tangy sauce with a reddish brown color. Its predominant flavors are of salt, garlic and citrus. It is typically made with soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar and cornstarch, with a slightly viscous texture. It is popular in Chinese cuisines and goes well with meat and vegetable dishes.

It's so flavor-packed that you really need just a few fresh ingredients to mix with the XO sauce. Now, what do you do with it? SO MANY THINGS. In Red Hot Kitchen, I have recipes for noodles, chicken stir-fries, steamed fish, veggies, a flatbread pizza, and more.

Sometimes a paste made from tomatoes is used, but this is rare and normally restricted to Western cooking. Cantonese sweet and sour sauce is the direct ancestor of the sauce of the same name in the West and was originally developed for sweet and sour pork.