When I travelled in Asia, I usually brought home a bottle or 2 of XO sauce - Cantonese spicy seafood sauce usually with dried scallop and shrimp, Chinese sausages and red chili. A few months ago, I saw in the Asian stores here, the Lee Kam Kee brand, but they recently replaced it with an unknown Thai brand.
Do you buy them or make them yourself? If you make them, do you have a favourite recipe? TIA
My mom used to make the XO sauce, but I only remember she did it once. She made such a huge huge batch that she gave away as gifts to many people.
I just buy them. I actually like the Lee Kam Kee version although it is more pricey than other brands. I prefer to make my green onion and ginger sauce instead. 
Is it the one with green onion, grated ginger, salt and oil, to accompany grill pork belly?
As for XO sauce, I recommended Wing Wah from Hong Kong, they are famous for their preserved ham and sausage. It was so good, I finished half from the bottle directly.
No pork belly. Just green onion and smashed ginger and heated in hot oil.
Really? Wing Wah? Yes, I know it for their famous mooncakes.
Yes, it’s them!
Mine is different, I copy from the HK barbecue places: chopped green onion, including the white part, grated ginger, some sea salt and quite some oil (neutral oil like sun flower, or grape seed). No cooking and ideal with roast pork or steam chicken. (Duck has its plum sauce, another story).
we have them here in the asian stores but I do not believe they are Lee Kam Kee brand. I use it to marinade fish or meat. Still think they are not spicy enough.
Am thinking of buying the korean gochujang but every time I go to sian store, I am usually in a rush The sauces I have been buying re not spicy enough and I find I have to add more peppers to it.
Are they a little sweet?
No, they are not supposedly to be very spicy. It is Cantonese food invented originally by a chef in Hong Kong. You need to add more chili paste if you want it hot.
Exactly, just a bit.
Grace Young has a very good recipe for XO sauce, but it appears she has not released it without copyright. If you have a decent library, it is in “Breath of a Wok”, Winnie Hon’s XO Sauce, p. 214.
I am allergic to one of the ingredients of this sauce so have not made it myself.
Thanks got it, better than library, amazon!
Not challenging you, but what led you to believe its a very good recipe?
I am a member of a group that is cooking through all of her books and this was one of December’s recipe. Every single report was positive which hardly ever happens.
I would prefer to have tried it myself before recommending, but I can’t.
I see. Is this group of people experience with various XO sauces? I guess… the way you have described the positive feedbacks, it can be understood two different ways. First, the XO recipe in her book is better than most XO sauces. Second, the XO sauce is the most liked recipe among the recipes in her book. Sometime, these two feelings are not the same.
Yes. They are well-versed in Chinese cuisines, but of course, I can’t say how many different XO sauces they have each tried. The positive responses seem to be in the vein of “this is so much better than any bottled sauce I have ever tried,” not this is the best recipe from the book.
But, at this point, I have nothing much left to offer since I can neither taste bottled versions or the homemade one.
Perhaps others on this thread have tried and true recipes that they can share?
Cool. Thanks.
Is this group has some online discussion that I can have a glance?
The one I have tried that is very good (bottled version of Wing Wah, better than Lee Kum Kee brand), ingredient beside the dried seafood, they include also the preserved sausages and ham. The supreme XO sauce, they include duck liver sausages, and dried scallop.
Not only XO sauces, if you are travelling in HK and want to buy sauces:
Don’t know if both of you are still in HK, but maybe the link above is useful for you.
@Google_Gourmet @paprikaboy
Thanks a lot!! I can read everything (without joining), I guess to comment I need to join.
I enjoyed reading this review of Mei Xin’s XO sauce. The author found an entire scallop in his jar!
