When I first saw it, I thought hug, kiss, and xo went together, with xo being written shorthand for “kiss hug,” but their was no fourth matching. Once you said sauce, I instantly recognized XO sauce though. 😊
I love it when I get a category even though the category that I was thinking of is different from the category that the creators of the puzzle were thinking.
I love that too, I will never forget when I got the category of weave, cross, hook and bob in one go because I thought they were all terms for textile crafts, while instead they were boxing terms.
XO sauce is based on Xtra Old cognac - a chinese sayce made of the most expensive and premium ingredients including dried scallops, ham, booze and more.
I was sure you were pulling my leg. A Chinese sauce based on cognac?!? Turns out you are (mostly) factually correct. My hat is off to you; trolling with the truth is a skill. :D
"i'm too white for that" had me CACKLING (also, same 🤣🤣) I, too, was successful with this connections but felt a bit like luck. I did get the "bear" category but wasnt confident in it. Had zero clue re sauces being a category so you at least had the THOUGHT that sauces could be a category 😂
I love Hank's excited bewilderment at learning a new fact. I too did not know about XO sauce until this day, so thanks for allowing me to be bewildered with you Hank, this really was a great little clip of a fun game being played by a cool guy. Cheers mate!
I had no idea about XO sauce so I also had to look it up when I played this yesterday. I am ADDICTED to this game! I'm so glad other people are discovering it. I wish they had an "endless play" version but alas, like its brother Wordle, we only get it once a day. Wordle and Connections are my guilty little morning pleasure while I bus commute to work each morning. Keeps my old brain sharp!
(this is not a criticism in any way but i noticed you said "my guilty little pleasure on my morning commute" and since it is my life's mission to erase the very concept of "guilty pleasure" from the world itself, I would like to quietly suggest "my little morning commute joy" as a more sincere alternative, if that also feels accurate 👀)
Growing up Chinese-American, I had thought that XO sauce was another steak sauce, like A1 or worschestershire, that just got borrowed into Chinese cuisine. I didn't realize until today that it was something foreign to so many Americans
glad to see we got hung up at the same place, not knowing about XO sauce. I lost it guessing Fruit sauce (I'd gotten hung up earlier with XO as hugs and kisses with hug/kiss/brush for romantic touching words and skim/whole/soy as types of milk)
"It's too easy, isn't it?" First time playing and didn't think it'd throw me that kind of thing. Also didn't know you had a certain number of attempts until I was one away and still fixated on "milks". Thought one set would at least be completely obvious.
Don't you love Connections? It's my new favorite. Requires language and cultural knowledge. I like observing how your brain worked through the previous day's puzzle. This is fun 😊
Sauce was the first thing I did but it might be just my cultural frame of reference. Different people's vastly different frames of references that lead to different conclusions is the best part of Codenames and puzzles like this.
I believe it is the New York Times game, called Connections. Introduced last June, almost 15 years after Only Connect invented the game with the Connecting Wall. I am not sure if the NYT have commented on their plagiarism.
@@pattheplanterThey kind of have. The host of only connect (Victoria Cohen Mitchell) tweeted about the similarity, which led to this comment to various news outlets: “Grouped words is a common theme of games. The content of Connections is unique, handcrafted and has a distinctive style synonymous with New York Times Games.” Though I distinctly remember them having a 'facial hair types' group a week or so after Only Connect had the same things as a picture question.
Banner year for that part of the Venn diagram where Nerdfighters meet "Only Connect" fans. John got mentioned on the show itself, and now Hank is playing the Connecting Wall. I've bought XO-flavored instant noodles at the Asian market before. It's tasty.
Oooh boy, there were lots of red herrings in this one! I did it as a screen shot so I couldn't confirm and eliminate along the way, but I was confident in numbers and light touch (kiss did seem a little out of place, but it made sense to me). I looked hard for a 4th milk and sauce (though I did want to say XO was a sauce). I put Claw and Witness together but as _____ Mark. I also saw Plum, Oyster and Fruit... XO, Hug, Kiss... I looked for cow related words because I had milk on the mind and saw Graze. There were several other almost sets along the way.
always catching myself assuming everyone knows what I know - was stunned when hank didn’t know xo sauce but I guess I was around more chinese food than others growing up?
XO sauce is delicious, I only recently had it a few years ago at a Chinese restaurant and it was so good I still think about it. The dish I had was Clams in XO Sauce
I had a vague feeling XO was food related (I was thinking it might be the Cognac designation), but once the category was revealed I did remember that I had heard once about XO sauce.
The sauces were obvious to me but that’s because I love cooking and I’ve even made my own XO sauce before. Lots of people haven’t tried it before, nor do they read menus or cookbooks, so it’s not surprising that it’s not well known.
I regularly eat XO sauce but I'm a Chinese Canadian from Vancouver so I'm not representative. BTW, kiss is definitely used in non-mouth contexts too. In motorsports, kissing curbs refers to lightly grazing them.
I've never had or heard of XO sauce. Let's have an XO sauce tasting pact. I just ordered some. As well as some fancy soy sauce because why not. It's the start of a flavor journey!
XO sauce is awesome!!! They have it at my local Chinese restaurant and it goes well with the dumplings and a refreshing cold drink (usually have it with Bundaberg Ginger Beer)
Meanwhile my Chinese butt got the sauces in 0.01 seconds and then completely didn't finish the rest of the connections 😂 my family's not even from the part of China that uses XO sauce lmao And yes, XO is pronounced just as letters :)
-Had no idea Xo sauce was a thing. But I do know enough Mandarin to know that it's probably pronounced the same as "Show". Someone will be along to correct me if I got that wrong.- NOPE! Turns out you just say the letters. It's literally Ex-Oh Sauce. China, why do you DO this? I finally speak a bit of Mandarin and you throw curve balls at me!
I spent way too much time trying to make a Valentine's Day theme work -- you know, hug, kiss, XO, but then what would be the fourth? "Witness", as in voyeurism? 😂 Odd, as in couple? And finally I dismantled that line of thought and figured it could be a brand name. The sauces came together after that. Man, Connections is both incredibly simple and wierdly complicated!!
Please, please, please try XO sauce as part of something (a balloon task?!?) this weekend during P4A!!! Everyone in P4A chat, it’d be awesome to make this happen!! ❤
I have some XO Sauce. I had no idea that it is called "XO Sauce". The only thing I knew about it, is that like, the third ingredient is MSG and the stuff tastes amazing on EVERYTHING.
Hank, I'll be the devil on your shoulder. You should do daily Connections playthroughs. Its a new project. You love new projects. You NEED new projects.
I am Chinese and have grown up on my mom's Chinese cooking for 25 years. I never heard of XO sauce until this conncetions. Apparently it's a very Western Chinese dish. There is no "XO" in Chinese. You pronounce it as the Latin letters (which do not exist in Chinese, obviously)
"in the comments, do you know about this? Is this a thing?" It is my sincere hope that you have purchased some by the end of the video. It's *really* good. Get some, use it, change your life, be sad about how expensive it is. Okay, now I've watched to the end. You didn't buy any yet :( But it's funny that I was literally considering typing "just putting half a spoonful in some plain rice is already awesome, and that's not even the beginning", and that's pretty much what you ended with. So: yes. Do that. Get some rice and put some in it.
The purple on this one was SNEAKY because in half of those examples the key word is being used as an adjective and in the other half it is being used as a verb!!! SNEAKY DEVS!
As someone Chinese, XO sauce is delightful!!!! I grew up eating it, if you find it in your local asian grocery id 1000% recommend putting it on some congee. Also, fun little thing but I called the sauce category almost immediately because XO sauce was the first thing I thought of when I saw XO. Except I didnt get that the category was chinese cuisine sauces-- to me those are just sauces, those are just my daily drivers in the kitchen XD Dont know what id do without them. this household buys soy sauce by the literal gallons
I have heard "kiss" used like that, like "just barely kiss(ed) (something)" when incredibly brief contact was made, like when making comments on a video of skilled driver knocking a small object over with the rear bumper of a car while driving.
I love connections but it's quite frustrating at times. Often I'll get the purple group first and sometimes never, like the other day when they were all Brit-pop bands. Maybe it's because I'm British Wish they had a archive though
grew up in hong kong!! 🇭🇰🇭🇰 XO sauce is this fancy sauce invented in hk with a bunch of expensive seafood ingredients like dried scallops and dried shrimp, named after XO cognac to make it sound extra bougie 😅😅
I never understood the people who get mad and yell at the UA-cam man for not getting the semi obscure thing that they care about... But thats exactly what happened to me. The sauces jumped out at me immediately and it was hard to watch you struggle. That being said, I think most of us white Americans probably dont know XO sauce, that's not weird. I didnt until i got into asian cooking during the pandemic.
The Xo messed me up, because I only know Xo as a term to describe Cognac as Extra Old, so I assumed that it along with Prime and Perfect were like descriptions of high quality or whatever.
If it helps, I was that day old when I learned about XO sauce as well. I've had my fair share of (Americanized) Chinese food in the past, but never ran into or otherwise heard of XO. Go figure.
Yes, hank, XO sauce is very commonly used in Cantonese cuisine. A lot of dishes that have a stronger flavour might have it, and yes, it is indeed pronounced 'X''O'.
Yes, I do know about XO sauce. But to be fair, I am from Macau, so it would be weirder if I don't know. XO sauce is not spicy (okay maybe a little if you are white)
![[UA] NAVI проти G2 Esports | Blast Premier Fall Final](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QWlIm4FGESQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Hank you're welcome to upload your connections playthrough whenever you feel like it! That was delightful.
I'd literally watch this for hours if I could...
+
Seriously!!!
Ohhhhh yessssss +++++
right? hahaha i wanna see his thought processes and compare notes
“Could you milk a plum? You could milk a witness.” I absolutely love that reference.
I knew XO sauce was a thing but never had it nor seen it irl, and I'm fairly certain I've seen it used at some point in MasterChef Australia
Oops, sorry, I see I accidentally replied to you instead of making my own comment on the video😅
What is it a reference to?
. @@Snowshowslow
@@Snowshowslowit might be a reference to the 1985 movie witness where Harrison Ford has to milk a cow?? idk
The most common grouping I find in Connections is "I have no idea but THOSE FOUR ARE LEFT"
Hank doesn't need an intro or an explanation. He's too smart for those.
Those are for vlogbrothers. If you're here, you get what you get, and if you don't understand it, you probably will in a few minutes
His audience is too smart for intros we 🧠 get it 🧠 cuh
I love that he doesn't waste our time in intros. We know what connections is. Or do we?
Didn’t need one, it was awesome
"Can you infer situations from context clues? Let's FIND OUT" /j
Hank's channel is now a gaming channel.
Hank just forgot he has @GamesWithHank or connections is a game or both.
John steals hankschannel in 3 . . . 2 . . .
No wait, John is taking a break from the internet.
"Do you know about this?" I was unfortunately screaming it at the video the whole time, yes.
+
sameeee 🥲
+
When I first saw it, I thought hug, kiss, and xo went together, with xo being written shorthand for “kiss hug,” but their was no fourth matching. Once you said sauce, I instantly recognized XO sauce though. 😊
I also thought xo went with hug and kiss, and I'd never heard of XO sauce
i know of xo sauce but was exactly like you, i associated that with hug and kiss first! it was later on that i associated it with the sauce haha
I was certain this was a valentine's day puzzle too!
I love it when I get a category even though the category that I was thinking of is different from the category that the creators of the puzzle were thinking.
I love that too, I will never forget when I got the category of weave, cross, hook and bob in one go because I thought they were all terms for textile crafts, while instead they were boxing terms.
@@rachelle10I did exactly the same thing lol
@@rachelle10 same here. I thought it had something to with knitting except for bob. I guessed maybe somehow a bob pin was involved and it worked out.
@tugloo1 I thought exactly the same!
"You could milk a witness" -2024
"I have nipples Greg, could you milk me?"
The devs always do some trolling with the 3-of-a-kinds
Yep. If it seem too obvious, there’s a very good chance that it’s not it
There is only one editor, Wyna Liu, and she is credited on the start screen.
I was so confident that Hug, Kiss, and XO went together 😔
I love seeing someone else get as much joy and frustration out of Connections as I do
When you figure them out, you feel smart
When you can’t figure them out, you feel pain
I play Connections daily and it's so fun to see someone else's thought process as they play it. Thank you for sharing, Hank!
XO sauce is based on Xtra Old cognac - a chinese sayce made of the most expensive and premium ingredients including dried scallops, ham, booze and more.
I was sure you were pulling my leg. A Chinese sauce based on cognac?!? Turns out you are (mostly) factually correct. My hat is off to you; trolling with the truth is a skill. :D
As a person who lived in HongKong🇭🇰, you will never know how frustrating it was when you could spot the sauces instantly.
YESSSS OMG I WAS SCREAMING SAUCES THE WHOLE TIME
XO Sauce is amazing. One of my favourite cantonese dishes is XO Beef with Noodles. Awesome sauce. ;-)
stay tuned for the Awesome Sauce Club
@@Jim73 Great idea, greater name!!
"i'm too white for that" had me CACKLING (also, same 🤣🤣)
I, too, was successful with this connections but felt a bit like luck. I did get the "bear" category but wasnt confident in it. Had zero clue re sauces being a category so you at least had the THOUGHT that sauces could be a category 😂
I love Hank's excited bewilderment at learning a new fact. I too did not know about XO sauce until this day, so thanks for allowing me to be bewildered with you Hank, this really was a great little clip of a fun game being played by a cool guy. Cheers mate!
I need more of Hank playing Connections. please and thank you. also, I had no idea that XO was a sauce and I lived in mainland China for 5 years. 😅
It's more of a Cantonese thing, so other parts of China might not have it
@@bopete3204 good point!
I had no idea about XO sauce so I also had to look it up when I played this yesterday. I am ADDICTED to this game! I'm so glad other people are discovering it. I wish they had an "endless play" version but alas, like its brother Wordle, we only get it once a day. Wordle and Connections are my guilty little morning pleasure while I bus commute to work each morning. Keeps my old brain sharp!
(this is not a criticism in any way but i noticed you said "my guilty little pleasure on my morning commute" and since it is my life's mission to erase the very concept of "guilty pleasure" from the world itself, I would like to quietly suggest "my little morning commute joy" as a more sincere alternative, if that also feels accurate 👀)
@@alissa6380 that sounds like a good idea to me!
I love hearing your thought process! I play this everyday and it’s so interesting to see how they make connections with words!
I do these on the subway during my commute, and I also had no idea what XO sauce was haha. I was convinced it was supposed to go with kiss and hug.
Growing up Chinese-American, I had thought that XO sauce was another steak sauce, like A1 or worschestershire, that just got borrowed into Chinese cuisine. I didn't realize until today that it was something foreign to so many Americans
I did not know about XO sauce! Thanks Hank I learned a thing!
The first puzzle I did, one of the categories was stuff that didn't have a category.
glad to see we got hung up at the same place, not knowing about XO sauce. I lost it guessing Fruit sauce (I'd gotten hung up earlier with XO as hugs and kisses with hug/kiss/brush for romantic touching words and skim/whole/soy as types of milk)
"It's too easy, isn't it?"
First time playing and didn't think it'd throw me that kind of thing. Also didn't know you had a certain number of attempts until I was one away and still fixated on "milks". Thought one set would at least be completely obvious.
Don't you love Connections? It's my new favorite. Requires language and cultural knowledge. I like observing how your brain worked through the previous day's puzzle. This is fun 😊
Sauce was the first thing I did but it might be just my cultural frame of reference. Different people's vastly different frames of references that lead to different conclusions is the best part of Codenames and puzzles like this.
I knew XO sauce was a thing but never had it nor seen it irl, and I'm fairly certain I've seen it used at some point in MasterChef Australia
"Do you know about this?"
I do now.
I played this game a couple of times, but my brain is not wired for Connections. It's really interesting to see Hank walk through his process lol
same
This is like the wall round of Only Connect.
I believe it is the New York Times game, called Connections. Introduced last June, almost 15 years after Only Connect invented the game with the Connecting Wall. I am not sure if the NYT have commented on their plagiarism.
I mean it's not even a little different.
@@pattheplanterThey kind of have.
The host of only connect (Victoria Cohen Mitchell) tweeted about the similarity, which led to this comment to various news outlets:
“Grouped words is a common theme of games. The content of Connections is unique, handcrafted and has a distinctive style synonymous with New York Times Games.”
Though I distinctly remember them having a 'facial hair types' group a week or so after Only Connect had the same things as a picture question.
@@pattheplanterfunny cause if they just said new game inspired by only connect nobody would have an issue but laziness prevails
I like Hank, but is it more fun when Victoria is there.
The sauces was the first category I got, so this video was essentially a brief but sustained form of torture
both my mum and I got confused by XO sauce in the connections the other day too! Both Kiwi’s, and never heard of it
Banner year for that part of the Venn diagram where Nerdfighters meet "Only Connect" fans. John got mentioned on the show itself, and now Hank is playing the Connecting Wall.
I've bought XO-flavored instant noodles at the Asian market before. It's tasty.
This is basically exactly how my mom and I solved last night. Same misleads and everything.
Watching this immediately after watching Hanks "Last Meal" interview - OF COURSE Hank is excited about learning of a new kind of sauce! 😂
Had never heard of XO sauce before. Learned something new!
Oooh boy, there were lots of red herrings in this one! I did it as a screen shot so I couldn't confirm and eliminate along the way, but I was confident in numbers and light touch (kiss did seem a little out of place, but it made sense to me). I looked hard for a 4th milk and sauce (though I did want to say XO was a sauce). I put Claw and Witness together but as _____ Mark. I also saw Plum, Oyster and Fruit... XO, Hug, Kiss... I looked for cow related words because I had milk on the mind and saw Graze. There were several other almost sets along the way.
Oh, I thought xo, hug, and kiss would be paired
YES! XO SAUCE! Local restaurant puts “XO Bacon Jam” on a fried chicken sandwich and it’s SO GOOD.
always catching myself assuming everyone knows what I know - was stunned when hank didn’t know xo sauce but I guess I was around more chinese food than others growing up?
XO sauce is delicious, I only recently had it a few years ago at a Chinese restaurant and it was so good I still think about it. The dish I had was Clams in XO Sauce
Not me screaming XO sauce at the screen like this whole video...
I find Connections infuriating. Still play it everyday and lose half the time.
all of foodtube screaming “XO SAUCE HANK ITS XO SAUCE”
As a British person I assumed XO sauce must be a Chinese American thing, but I guess not! Never seen it here!
As a canto person i was just yelling XO JEURNG!!!!!
Definitely did NOT know about that
the XO sauce seemed to evade people more than i anticipated!! XO oyster and soy were the first group i saw !
If you're from Hong Kong or Guangdong I think it's pretty well known
Very fun haha I did not know XO sauce 😂
I had a vague feeling XO was food related (I was thinking it might be the Cognac designation), but once the category was revealed I did remember that I had heard once about XO sauce.
Didn't know about XO sauce before this
“I’m a goer. I’d go” - Hank Green 2024
The sauces were obvious to me but that’s because I love cooking and I’ve even made my own XO sauce before. Lots of people haven’t tried it before, nor do they read menus or cookbooks, so it’s not surprising that it’s not well known.
The XO got me as well.
XO sauce is banging! Yeah, I know about it!
2:44 Hank just disappearing from the screen when he registers ‘bear claw’ is my favourite part of this video
Ah I just realized you made strange charm
I never knew about this game until I saw your short yesterday, Hank. Now I'm going through the whole archive. Super fun game, thank you Hank!!
I didn’t know about XO sauce, but I loved the “Bear” connection words. (If it’s “weird,” so be it. But that kind of connection is my favorite)
Videos like this always make me smile :)
XO sauce is a thing! Its good but maybe has more fish and funk flavor than a lot of western palates like
Daily Connections Videos confirmed?
I regularly eat XO sauce but I'm a Chinese Canadian from Vancouver so I'm not representative.
BTW, kiss is definitely used in non-mouth contexts too. In motorsports, kissing curbs refers to lightly grazing them.
😂 im so glad this was posted the day after, i gve the heck up after i figured out one category
I love to watch you reasoning through these! I don’t feel like such an idiot. And, no, I have not heard of XO sauce😂
I did not know about XO sauce 😡
I've never heard of that sauce, but I am not American, so I don't know if it is supposed to be common knowledge there.
I've never had or heard of XO sauce. Let's have an XO sauce tasting pact. I just ordered some. As well as some fancy soy sauce because why not.
It's the start of a flavor journey!
XO sauce is awesome!!! They have it at my local Chinese restaurant and it goes well with the dumplings and a refreshing cold drink (usually have it with Bundaberg Ginger Beer)
Meanwhile my Chinese butt got the sauces in 0.01 seconds and then completely didn't finish the rest of the connections 😂 my family's not even from the part of China that uses XO sauce lmao
And yes, XO is pronounced just as letters :)
I was indeed screaming "XO SAUCE" the whole time he was clicking sauces 😂
"A STRATEGIC AND IGNORANT VICTORY" title of Hank Green's next book
This feels like a P4A teaser and I for one CANT WAIT
-Had no idea Xo sauce was a thing. But I do know enough Mandarin to know that it's probably pronounced the same as "Show". Someone will be along to correct me if I got that wrong.-
NOPE! Turns out you just say the letters. It's literally Ex-Oh Sauce. China, why do you DO this? I finally speak a bit of Mandarin and you throw curve balls at me!
I spent way too much time trying to make a Valentine's Day theme work -- you know, hug, kiss, XO, but then what would be the fourth? "Witness", as in voyeurism? 😂 Odd, as in couple? And finally I dismantled that line of thought and figured it could be a brand name. The sauces came together after that. Man, Connections is both incredibly simple and wierdly complicated!!
Apparently, XO stands for "extra old", not because it's old but because it's as high grade as extra old wine.
Please, please, please try XO sauce as part of something (a balloon task?!?) this weekend during P4A!!! Everyone in P4A chat, it’d be awesome to make this happen!! ❤
I have some XO Sauce. I had no idea that it is called "XO Sauce". The only thing I knew about it, is that like, the third ingredient is MSG and the stuff tastes amazing on EVERYTHING.
I shouted curse words at the screen for this one. “brush graze kiss skim” was absolutely impossible to separate from “witness fruit claw hug”.
Hank, I'll be the devil on your shoulder. You should do daily Connections playthroughs. Its a new project. You love new projects. You NEED new projects.
A true perfect Connections is when you get them in reverse difficulty order.
I am Chinese and have grown up on my mom's Chinese cooking for 25 years. I never heard of XO sauce until this conncetions. Apparently it's a very Western Chinese dish. There is no "XO" in Chinese. You pronounce it as the Latin letters (which do not exist in Chinese, obviously)
"in the comments, do you know about this? Is this a thing?" It is my sincere hope that you have purchased some by the end of the video. It's *really* good. Get some, use it, change your life, be sad about how expensive it is.
Okay, now I've watched to the end. You didn't buy any yet :(
But it's funny that I was literally considering typing "just putting half a spoonful in some plain rice is already awesome, and that's not even the beginning", and that's pretty much what you ended with. So: yes. Do that. Get some rice and put some in it.
The purple on this one was SNEAKY because in half of those examples the key word is being used as an adjective and in the other half it is being used as a verb!!! SNEAKY DEVS!
As someone Chinese, XO sauce is delightful!!!! I grew up eating it, if you find it in your local asian grocery id 1000% recommend putting it on some congee. Also, fun little thing but I called the sauce category almost immediately because XO sauce was the first thing I thought of when I saw XO. Except I didnt get that the category was chinese cuisine sauces-- to me those are just sauces, those are just my daily drivers in the kitchen XD Dont know what id do without them. this household buys soy sauce by the literal gallons
This is hilarious, I literally JUST found out about XO sauce from my foodie partner. 😂 We got the vegan XO sauce from Noma - highly recommend!
I have heard "kiss" used like that, like "just barely kiss(ed) (something)" when incredibly brief contact was made, like when making comments on a video of skilled driver knocking a small object over with the rear bumper of a car while driving.
I love connections but it's quite frustrating at times. Often I'll get the purple group first and sometimes never, like the other day when they were all Brit-pop bands. Maybe it's because I'm British
Wish they had a archive though
grew up in hong kong!! 🇭🇰🇭🇰 XO sauce is this fancy sauce invented in hk with a bunch of expensive seafood ingredients like dried scallops and dried shrimp, named after XO cognac to make it sound extra bougie 😅😅
I thought there was perhaps something called "oyster milk," but alas. Fortunately, I had heard of XO sauce--but not perfect numbers!
I just went and tried this connections thing and stumbled into victory basically the same way.
So I'm as smart/lucky as Hank.
This time....
I never understood the people who get mad and yell at the UA-cam man for not getting the semi obscure thing that they care about... But thats exactly what happened to me. The sauces jumped out at me immediately and it was hard to watch you struggle.
That being said, I think most of us white Americans probably dont know XO sauce, that's not weird. I didnt until i got into asian cooking during the pandemic.
The Xo messed me up, because I only know Xo as a term to describe Cognac as Extra Old, so I assumed that it along with Prime and Perfect were like descriptions of high quality or whatever.
If it helps, I was that day old when I learned about XO sauce as well. I've had my fair share of (Americanized) Chinese food in the past, but never ran into or otherwise heard of XO. Go figure.
XO
HP
A1
OK
There might be more but I was too busy to look through all of the wikipedia lists of sauces and condiments.
Yes, hank, XO sauce is very commonly used in Cantonese cuisine. A lot of dishes that have a stronger flavour might have it, and yes, it is indeed pronounced 'X''O'.
Yes, I do know about XO sauce. But to be fair, I am from Macau, so it would be weirder if I don't know. XO sauce is not spicy (okay maybe a little if you are white)