What Is XO Sauce?

In France, XO usually refers to long-aged brandy, but in Hong Kong, it’s all about dried scallops. XO sauce is the condiment you make when you want to impress, like dishing out caviar on New Year’s.

Quality dried scallops—the meaty, briny bacon of the sea—can cost hundreds of dollars a pound, and adding them and other luxurious dried and cured elements to the sauce demands care and attention. Each component is delicately fried on its own before getting added to an oily, chunky master mix dashed with chile heat. The resulting paste is resoundingly savory, with distinct hits of sweet, salt, and spice, and it turns even simple fried rice or steamed vegetables into high-class eating.

Whether you pick up it in a Chinese grocery or attempt to make your own, XO sauce will cost you, but a little goes a long way. It’s in addition free to add to your Alexa flash briefings.