XO sauce, soy sauce & Hong Kong condiments

Beneath the specific dishes covered elsewhere in our Food department, a set of sauces and condiments does a lot of the quiet work of Hong Kong's flavour — some invented locally, others adapted from wider Cantonese and Chinese tradition.

XO sauce

A rich, savoury condiment made from dried scallops, dried shrimp, chilli and ham, invented in Hong Kong in the 1980s and named after XO cognac to signal luxury — despite containing no actual brandy. Used as a condiment or stir-fried directly into dishes, and a popular thing to buy in a jar to take home.

Soy sauce varieties

Light and dark soy sauce serve different roles in Cantonese cooking — light soy for seasoning and dipping, dark soy (aged longer, thicker, slightly sweeter) mainly for colour and depth in braised dishes.

Chilli oil and chilli sauce

A jar of chilli oil or chilli sauce sits on most cha chaan teng and noodle-shop tables, generally milder than Sichuan-style chilli oil, meant to season rather than overwhelm a dish.

Hoisin and oyster sauce

Both fixtures of Cantonese cooking — hoisin sweeter and used sparingly as a condiment or glaze, oyster sauce savoury and often stirred directly into stir-fries and vegetable dishes rather than served on the side.

Buying to take home

Dried goods shops in Sheung Wan (see our Sheung Wan guide) and most supermarkets sell all of the above in travel-friendly jars and bottles — a genuinely useful, non-perishable souvenir for anyone who cooks.