Where's the XO?

MISSING! REWARD FOR WHOEVER DISCOVERS WHERE THE XO WENT TO!

Today I had chicken rice at Boon Tong Kee!! hahahaha.

And so when I was eating, there this poster on the wall facing me which was promoting the XO sauce of the store. It looked like


Soon, my relatives noticed the poster as well and they began discussing whether there was XO (the liquor) in XO sauce since it was not included in the list of ingredients on the poster. My mom then pointed out that actually there is no XO liquor in the sauce itself. This made me a little curious because why is the sauce named the way it is then? Besides,having almost no culinary knowledge, I am not exactly familiar with such sauces.

Well, it turns out that she was right. There is no liquor in the sauce after all. After doing a search on Google, I was half amused to find a Wikipedia entry on XO sauce, which is really useful for me actually!

So why isn't there XO liquor in XO sauce although the name makes it sound as though there is?

To quote wikipedia..

"The name XO sauce comes from fine XO (extra-old) cognac, which is a popular Western liquor in Hong Kong and considered by many to be a chic product there. In addition the term XO is often used in the popular culture of Hong Kong to denote high quality, prestige, and luxury. In fact, XO sauce has been marketed in the same manner as the French liquor, using packaging of similar colour schemes."

Wikipedia is always helpful at times like this. ^^

Anyway, the mystery has been solved! The word XO was borrowed and used to name the sauce in order to present some kind of classy image for the sauce. Very interesting indeed. And the term XO sauce seems to be more related to the Chinese culture, since it originated from Hong Kong. Therefore, there is a possibility that non-Chinese might not have heard of it, or know what it means. Then again, not ALL Chinese may know what it means, or its background and origin. Though in multicultural Singapore, I think our fellow Singaporeans from other ethnic groups might have been exposed to XO sauce and even have some knowledge of it.

All this food talk is making me hungry. =/