XO is a spicy seafood sauce, which was developed in Hong Kong Cantonese cuisine in the 1980s. The sauce is made of roughly chopped dried seafoods, such as scallop, dried fish and shrimp that has been cooked with chilli, onion, garlic and oil. Once a prestigious concoction confined to gourmet seafood restaurants, XO Sauce can now be found as a pre-made product on grocery stores shelves, produced by Asian food companies like Lee Kum Kee and Amoy.

Name
The name comes from fine XO (extra-old) cognac, which is a popular western liquor in Hong Kong and considered by many

there to be a chic product. In addition the term "XO" is often used in the popular culture of Hong Kong to denote high quality, prestige, and luxury. XO sauce has been marketed in the same manner as the French liquor, using packaging of similar colour schemes.

Uses
XO sauce can be used as a condiment on the side of main dishes or used in cooking to enhance the flavour of fish, meats, vegetables, and otherwise bland foods such as tofu or noodles. Home cooks often used this sauce as the chief flavorant for fried rice.

Ingredients
Typical ingredients of XO sauce include:

• diced onion
• dried scallop (conpoy)
• fresh red chilli
• ground black pepper
• Jinhua ham or Smithfield ham
• large dried shrimp, shelled
• minced garlic
• oil
• salted cured fish
• tiny dried shrimp, unshelled

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