Andrew Sun

Mouthing Off | The secret to good Chinese food? It’s in the sauce: ready-made condiments have the power to transform any dish

Look in your cupboards or fridge and you will probably find one or more of these Chinese condiments: hoisin sauce, dried shrimp paste, soy sauce, oyster sauce

Magical bottles and jars like this have the power to turn any bland dish into a flavour bomb with just a spoonful or two – and nobody considers it cheating

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Andrew Sun

Published: 7:45am, 5 Jun 2024Updated: 8:07am, 5 Jun 2024

The secrets to Chinese cooking lie not in the “breath of the wok” or its dynasties-old recipes. No, I think it’s all about the convenient jars of sauces.

Hiding in plain sight on grocery store shelves and the pantry of every household, they can transform any bland plate into a spellbindingly delicious concoction.

I still remember being younger, looking at my mum’s cabinet of condiments and thinking, “How can she tell any of them apart or remember what they are all used for?”

Now I have many of these jars taking up way too much space in my fridge. Some mysteries remain, though. For example, hoisin sauce literally means seafood sauce, but it’s neither made from seafood nor used for seafood.

A jar of Lee Kum Kee’s hoisin sauce. It is neither made from seafood nor used for seafood. Photo: Getty Images

The truth is, you eventually have to use these condiments to prepare most Cantonese dishes. There’s no way most of us are going to make our own black bean sauce, preserved olive paste, chu hou or fermented soybean sauce, dried shrimp paste or oyster sauce.