Every Lao Gan Ma, explained.

Hey guys, a few notes:
EDIT: The first chili oil, "Fried Chili in Oil", contains peanuts. Apparently in some countries (Canada I think?) the label says something along the lines of 'chili oil with peanut‘, or something like that. A *lot* of people are commenting that we didn't cover the peanut Lao Gan Ma - that's what we're describing at 0:50 :) Another common name variant is "Kohlrabi, Peanuts and Tofu in Chilli Oil" for the #4 'Hot Chili Sauce' at 5:02
1. Lots of fun trying to track down if and where some of these products are available online, lol. The description box got a little long there, so I wasn’t able to fit in my spiel that I always give when linking stuff online: use online purchases as your method of last resort. Support your local Chinese supermarket - the products will be a *fraction* of the price there vs online.
2. As a brief aside, if anyone can explain to me why Amazon is basically always more expensive than the supermarket in North America, I’m all ears. Always feels weird to me, because in China Taobao/JD are *cheaper*. Feels more intuitive, because no rent, right?
3. Most Lao Gan Ma products actually seem pretty available online if you do some digging. Lao Gan Ma’s online retailer in the USA is called “ihomehouseware”. Between them, Amazon, Yamibuy, and WalMart… you should be able to find like 75% of the product line if you’re in North America. Even Europe seems to have importers that carry most of the products.
4. The remaining 25% are the Lao Gan Ma products with meat inside. I assume that there’s some sort of import restriction on meat products in the West. There’s been a million copycat chili crisp products on the market as of late, so if you’re a NA or Europe-based condiment manufacturer… I suggest that you look into copying the *meat* Lao Gan Mas, instead of creating the nth version of chili crisp. The world needs the beef mince black bean Lao Gan Ma product.
5. If for some reason a condiment maker actually *is* reading this and thinks that’s a good idea, reach out to us. We’ve got some solid Lao Gan Ma copycat experience by this point, lol.
6. Proper recipe video will be out next week, then the Q&A video with Steph’s Dad Dawei will be out the following week. Apologies for the spate on non-recipe videos this month… I have to sort some visa stuff, and we’ve got some more intensive harder-to-crack dishes simmering on the backburner.
7. For our friends in Australia your products have different translations! Fun. Anyway, this was a picture that was snapped by one of our Patrons: i.imgur.com/iCg0Ng9.jpg . Going left to right - “Chili Condiment" = #1 = Hot Chili in Oil; ”Bean Chili Condiment" = #2 = Chili Oil with Black Bean; "Hot Tasty Bean Condiment" = #12 = Spicy Bean Paste; "Hot Pepper Condiment" = #3 = Spicy Chili Crisp; "Spicy Chili Condiment" = #4 = Hot Chili Sauce; "Chili Condiment with Diced Chicken" = #5 = Chicken Chili Oil; "Pickled Chili", same, #13; "Chili Fried Pork Flake" = #6; "Hot Chili Oil Condiment with Mushroom", same, #9. If anyone UK or EU based wants to go through the same exercise, I'd be happy to edit this comment with some answers :)
CCs will be out in a bit. It’s always a bit harder to make CCs for this sort of video - usually my VOs and such are scripted, so it’s a simple copy/paste. This one we gotta go through and type it out, and just couldn’t finished in time. It’ll get done today (our time).

History behind Lao Gan Ma for those curious: The person on the jar is Tao Huabi, who first created her chili sauce in 1984 and is a deputy of the National People's Congress in China. She opened a restaurant in 1989 in Guiyang the capital of Guizhou, and she was known as a godmother who helped poor students by giving them discounts and extra food. When people would come to her restaurant to purchase her sauce, she took notice. Then when there was highway construction by her restaurant, truckers would stop by her restaurant, and she'd give the sauce to them for free. She turned her noodle restaurant into a sauce shop in 1994 and her business just grew from there. The spicy chili crisp is most definitely the good stuff. I thank Mikey Chen for making me want to put chili oil on everything.

The dog blepping it's tongue in the back for like 10 minutes had me dying

Thank you Zhong Xina for introducing me to this

I'm embarrassed to say that I've been living in China for nearly five years, have purchased and used Lao Gan Ma numerous times, and am just now learning that there are so many variations. I even have a bottle in the cabinet as we speak and couldn't tell you what kind I bought. I sort of just grab whatever I see in the supermarket and go along.
Time to start paying attention to what I buy.

now I want this "is it good on rice" segment to become a recurring thing... every dish should be followed with an "is it good on rice" segment! noodles: are they good on rice?

With all those difficult to open jar, you need a "How do I get this on rice" category

I did not expect a Lao Gan Ma tier list...but I'm also not complaining. The choices are definitely overwhelming! I have at least three jars of Lao Gan Ma in my pantry as we speak and have tried quite a few over time...the San Ding one is definitely my fave. First time seeing your videos and I absolutely loved this. You have a passion for food that clearly shines through when you talk about all of these varieties! I also canNOT believe you did all of this in a white t-shirt. Mad respect!

Guys, I'm digging all the "meat with chili oil in a jar" options. They seems like things I can keep at work for lunch where I can just bring a bowl of rice and call it a day 😋

Incredibly helpful thank you :)

Your dog got some chilli oil and can’t stop flicking his tongue 😛 hahahaha 🤣🤣🤣 classic dog reaction to spicy food

Funny thing, when my friend first told me about Lao Gan Ma, I thought he said "lagad mat" (=swedish for "cooked food") in an extreme scanian dialect (sounds like "laogad maud"). We call it "laogad maud" now.

The "Kohlrabi, Peanuts and Tofu in Chilli Oil" @ 5:02 is one of the best Asian condiments I've ever tasted. The texture and flavor it adds is on another level. Highly recommended.

Next time I got to my local asian supermarket I’ll no longer be intimidated by the Lao Gan Ma wall! Thanks!

Best "We bought one of everything and tried it" video ever! No clickbait, no long spiel, just showing us the food. I love it!
Also we took delivery of 6 jars of Lao Gan Ma today ^_^

I have fond memories of my mom making "spicy green beans", which was just stir fried green beans with the black bean Lao Gan Ma and maybe some ginger and garlic. I still make it sometimes but it's never as good.

Instead of sleeping beacause i have classes tomorrow at 8:00 am, i am watching a video about the breakdown of the categeries of lao gan ma chili products. Good life choices 👍

You two are now officially national treasures. Of all nations.

Thank you for this! Brings back a memory - I was living in Houston - large city in USA, which has a very large area with lots of Asian markets. I went to one of the grocery stores there to pick up some ingredients from a cooking video - two of them were the Lao Gan Ma Fried Chili in Oil and Chili Oil Beancurd. They had so many jars, and none with English. I asked a few people for help (I had pictures of what I needed - and was really struggling). Nobody spoke English. Then an older woman saw me staring at my phone, and staring at the shelves. She took my phone, looked at the pictures, and proceeded to pick out all the products for me. So helpful! I was finally able to make my recipes with the right ingredients (not just these, but different soy sauces, vinegars, etc) - such a difference!!!!

Wow! This is why I love this channel, that you explain and background the various Chinese ingredients/products. I've also been trying to figure out the various dried herbs that are paired in Chinese soups. I love the brothy style soups they have at the start of meals.

The other day I was in the big supermarket in town and was SUPER EXCITED to see jars of Lao Gan Ma on the shelves... and then realised there were like half a dozen kinds and I wasn't sure which one was best. So thank you for your excellent timing in putting this video out! I'll go back this afternoon. :D

Your dog's non-stop mlem-mlem action is pretty funny. XD

THANK YOU! I've never seen any of the ones with meat in them in ANY of the Asian markets or supermarkets in my city. I would DEFINITELY try them. We are TOTALLY addicted to the Chili Oil With Mushrooms - ONE supermarket here carries it, so we stock up every time we go there. It's great on rice and especially adds a wonderful taste to most dark sauces (Hoisin, Mushroom Soy, and ESPECIALLY Black Pepper sauce!). Again, THANK YOU - your videos expand our horizons!

So, first off, I *ADORE* this channel!! It has opened me up to so much that I was unaware or only superficially aware of, and provided further clarification into things that I was aware of. I also love the "west meets east" meeting of cultures that we have here! a-MAZing channel! I've never not had a good time here!
Also, for a medium-sized metropolitan area in the middle of the US Midwest, the city in which I live, Des Moines has a surprisingly robust selection of ethnic grocery stores, including some very respectable multi-culture Asian groceries, and I'm the kind who will go in there and blow $100 when I was supposed to spend $10, and as much as half of it on things I've never even heard of, or at least never had a chance to try.
And as such, I've had the opportunity to personally try seven of these Lao Gan Ma products (four of which I presently still have on hand):
On hand, I have (using the English language names):
Fried Chili in Oil
Fried Chili Crisp (of course)
Hot Chili Sauce
and Tomato Chili Sauce.
I have also previously had
Chili Oil with Black Bean
Chili Oil Beancurd
and Spicy Salted Cabbage
I also recognize a handful of the others from seeing them on the shelves at the markets. I'll make it a point to try them. Of the ones I've had, I love them all. But my personal favorites are the Chili Tomato Sauce, and above all, the Hot Chili Sauce. I work to incorporate them in as many things as I can, and sometimes I'll even just sneak a little straight from the jar. What I really want is a better idea of the best times to use the right ones in authentic cooking. This video gives me some idea of that! So, thank you! :-)
Lastly, I may well be the only guy in America to actually have a Lao Gan Ma sticker on my laptop! I got a hold of some label paper, a color laser printer and went crazy making my own from images off the internet, and decided Lao Gan Ma needed to be one of them! :-) Since I'm afraid that a link will cause this comment to be blocked, I'll "reply-to-self" with a Google Photos link to a picture of my laptop. :-)
Anyway, thank you SOOOOO much for this channel! Keep up the good work, and I'll keep watching!
Cheers!
p.s. re: my opinion on LGM Chili Crisp: the first few tastes are absolutely revelatory! Bright, sharp, crisp, frgrant, mildly spicy, and impossibly vibrant. But get too many bites in, and the hua jiao begins to overpower a little bit. At least for me, anyway. I can taste the hua jiao in the other LGM sauces that I have which contain it....but it never seems to take over on those sauces like it does with chili crisp. I wonder if anyone else feels the same way. :-)

5:12 dog starts sticking it's tongue out for the entire video lol. He must have tasted the chili oil.

Thank you for this comprehensive explainer! I actually CAN read Chinese but was still overwhelmed by the selection at the store and wasn’t sure which variation is appropriate for what uses. This was super helpful.

This was so useful! My market brings this directly from China and I had no idea what kind was each one! Thank you

wow! thank you for this. my girlfriend is Chinese and she introduced me to Lao Gan Ma. I used it often, especially in braised pork and my own pork fried rice recipe. often add it for dipping sauce when we cook our own hot pot, etc. I did not realize there were more than 2! My local Asian market has some and I'm always trying to figure out why I think I'm buying the same thing and sometimes it has peanuts in it and sometimes not. She prefers without. I like them both. I had no idea there were this many other versions. I will have to be sure to bring my reading glasses next time and be sure to read all the bottles more carefully. So far the two that I seem to keep coming home with (and far cheaper in the Asian market than online fyi) are the Fried Chili in Oil and the Spicy Chili crisp versions. I cannot believe there is so much more to learn about it than just the 2 I am familiar with!! haha. thank you for this video! xiexie!

somebody give Steph an award for this video, and a glass of water!

Can't believe your apologizing for lack of recipes. You're the only one going into such great detail on ingredients!

What an excellent video! You are demystifying the plethora of sauces for us, bit by bit. This is most welcome!

Hey I've been looking into how to make hot chili oil and during the process of studying up on the different ways of making it online and on yt I've ended up coming to your channel for multiple different videos. It's been about the different types of vinegars and spices and soy sheets and all this other stuff I'm learning about food in general during the process of learning how to make the oil. You've got a really great channel and I appreciate your content. Keep it up. Thanks

This is so good! And I have to say the energy of doing this while wearing a white t-shirt is very impressive

I love how long the names got as she went on lol

I lived in China for nearly ten years. I couldn't live without LGM balck bean chili sauce...not only on rice but in measured amounts in soups or as a dipping sauce. Thanks for reminding me. Now that I am back in the US, I struggle to find good Chinese food products. Thanks again!

I really appreciate this video because they have so many products and can be difficult to understand if you never used them before.

Did anyone else run to their pantry to figure out which one they had??

As much as the subject matter and educational aspects of the channel is a treat, I have to say the production and personalities involve create such an easy to understand and enjoyable food education experience I’m always happy to watch hours of content for the sheer brain stimulation you guys provide.

This takes me back to 2014 during my first business trip to China. Our Chinese counterparts introduced it to us during lunch time and we couldn't get enough of it and it goes well with almost anything. It took about 5 years later to be available in my country and it's now a staple condiment in my house.

Thank you! Fabulous, comprehensive review of the products!☺️

This is going to save me some time at the Chinese grocers

This is by far one of the best cooking-related videos uploaded to youtube

AAAAAAA THE BLACK BEAN ONE IS MY FAVORITE!!!! I’m so glad it’s getting the love it deserves ❤

Thank you! I was having hard time to choose which one fit to my taste, your throughout explanation totally helpful!!!!❤️

A series of these videos would be wonderful. Every time I go into my Asian market I try to get something completely new, whether it be a sauce or pickle or canned fish. This has yielded very mixed results, and I sometimes fantasize about going around with a tiny spoon to taste everything. Having a primer on the many variations of some common Chinese condiments--what exactly they are, flavor profile, and how best to use them--would be extremely helpful!

In Indonesia, so far I've only seen the Fried Chili in Oil and Black Bean in Chili Oil. They are my condiment staples for a year now. Love it love it.

Thank you so much for this! Very new to the world of Lao Gan Ma and was a little overwhelmed by all the options on the shelf!

As someone who frequently shops at an asian grocery store but knows very little about traditional chinese food (and absolutely nothing about chinese languages) you have no idea how helpful this is!

I love these new episodes focusing on explaining ingredients. Very informative. Thx.

This video was sooooo good, would love to see more videos using the “on rice” scale, put a huge smile on my face

i discovered the spicy chili crisp recently and had no idea they had such a wide range. i put it on my rice or some type of tofu with a stir fry. i've just never had the others! i'm gonna go find them a few and try them! thank you!

I'm so glad you're back. I missed you guys.

Chris as much as I love your VO work, I love having Steph talk directly to the audience in these more informational videos. Thanks so much guys!

This Definitive Guide To Lao Gan Ma is brought to you by Raid: Shadow Legends

I decided to re-watch this the night before a trip to my favorite Chinese market and happened to notice the dog. I'm convinced you've given him peanut butter (or sesame paste) to keep his mouth busy while mom does all the taste testing. ADORABLE! I noticed around 6:45 for anyone interested.

As for the Chicken flavour chilli oil (sold in EU market), I realized today that there is no chicken in it, not even chicken flavour! It's just soybean oil, chili, tofu, garlic, salt, flavor enhancer, sugar and Sichuan pepper powder. It's actually vegan. I was so surprised!

On the one hand, I love that you didn't just tier list this and went more in detail. On the other hand, seeing a tier list to pause on at the end would be an amazing resource.

The dog ❤️ I love watching him floss his teeth with the plant leaves 😆 He is sooooo adorable! Thank you for explaining the different LaoGanMa’s! It is very helpful when going to the markets and choosing which one that’s needed! 👍🏽👍🏽

This was a lot of fun. I'm vegetarian, so I haven't had any of the meat-based sauces. My go-to is the one is a chili crisp style with fermented black beans. My second favorite is the mushroom one. I also get the fermented tofu sometimes and I like the fermented chili one (fermentation is like magic). I buy Lao Gan Ma most of the time, but I have recently found Fly by Jing and that product is really good (the chili crisp with fermented black beans is, anyway).

this video makes me so happy. I tried one of these products for the first time, fell in love, then moved and thought I was buying the same thing from my new market. wrong, but a happy accident I have repeated enough times that I've had maybe 4 or 5 different kinds without trying. It is so helpful to hear the difference so I know which one to put with what

You cannot imagine how badly I needed this info. Thank you.

I didn't know I needed this video so much. I usually just grab the most appetizing bottle

Thank christ for this, there sheer amount of these is overwhelming when you're shopping and trying to get to grips with chinese cooking

I'd only ever tried Spicy Chili Crisp (and adore it), now I'm excited to go to 99 Ranch and get some more to try! Thank you for this in depth look at all the flavors, this was super helpful.

How wonderful!
There’s a dish I had every day for three months while living in Kunming from a restaurant on Wenlinjie. I think it was called Pa rou or pao rou, but it was the most wonderful noodle dish ever, with (ersi?) noodles. To this day I haven’t been able to figure out the exact name, tones, characters, or how to make it. Bit by bit I’ve been trying to recreate it, starting with the different oils/toppings on it for myself.

Your rating scheme is hilarious! Thank you!

I legitimately stared at the shelf with these for ages before giving up because I couldn’t tell which I should get. This is so helpful!

I got the chilli oil with black bean a few months ago and although it's probably very non-traditional I put it on top of eggs on toast, sometimes with avocado. It's definitely not traditional but it's delicious!

I’m just amazed by all that Steph does for us

This is an enormously helpful video. My local Asian market is *huge* and well-stocked, but poorly labeled and almost none of the employees speak English, so navigating subtle variations with certain products can be tricky. I have absolutely stood for five minutes staring at four different Lao Gan Ma jars wondering which one is the type I wanted. 😅

So glad you made this video. Everybody keeps telling me the label just says 'chili oil'.

This is so very helpful, thank you for the excellent explanations.

thank you this has been perplexing me for ages

Great explanation of Laoganma series in it. For vegetarians, I will recommend the "Mushroom Chilli Oil" because when I checked the ingredients of it (Well, I'd checked in online shop), It is vegetarian friendly in it.

this is the video ive been waiting to see. thank you. i really appreciate you doing this. i just subscribed

Incredibly helpful. Thanks to this video I was finally able to buy what I wanted at the chinese store (since the translated lables are often incorrect) ad it was the most unexpected surprise. So delicious with rice, it's like a drug.

Thanks for introducing all the different types of lao gan ma and including both the english and chinese names for them! Here in Singapore we mostly import lao gan ma straight from china and they come with the chinese label so it's easy to use this video as a reference for the different labels

After your chili crisp with peanuts episode, I found some at our local Hmart. Started adding it to a lot of dishes. Now I will look for some others.

I love listening to you. This is so very helpful.

Thank you so much for this video!!! This is so helpful and now I can try these chili oil in my cooking with confidence 😊❤️

I swear, I've bought three different kinds of laoganma already. None of which were the of "classic" aka "internet hyped" variety. All of them were really nice, don't get me wrong, but maybe now I'll be able to finally buy "the one". Thanks so much!

We encountered the 香辣酱 xianglajiang quite a bit in Yunnan-- used in chao ersi, chao erkuai, miantiao, etc. Of course it was not the LGM version, but the kind you get at the chili-bean-paste vendor at the wet market who has a dozen variations, and 2-3 dozen varieties of pickled everything. I find XLJ really useful in making Yunnan food here in the states, like Yunnan-style zajiang.

Amazing presentation! You have clarified a ton of Lao Gan Ma for us! Thanks!

So far the preserved black bean one is my absolute fave and I use it with noodles and rice a lot. I've yet to many of these.

Thank you for the video! Finally, somebody explained all the LGM products adequately.
I have to say I am a bit embarrassed as I have been buying Hot Chili Sauce without any clue what was it as we don't have English translation on the jar. I am using it for a stir fry base.

Thank you so much for this video! Here in Brazil all lao gan ma chili oils are translated generally as "chili seasoning", so I get totally lost buying them in the grocery store. I've been eating the three dice one for the last months and had no idea there was tofu jerky in it 😂 Now I wanna try all of them.

Bit of a touchstone video this one. Keep coming back to it to refresh my memory!

when you took a bite of the rice and it made you happy, it made me happy too ☺️ thanks for the video

I put Spicy Chilli Crisp in my ramen and I am shooked! It's so good.

You both are the heroes I knew I needed!

killin it as usual. i think I love you guys!

Thank you for clarifying different options

I've been trying to find a jar of the OG chili oil, but my local (Canadian) grocery store only carries 2 varieties of this, the Black Bean version you covered, and one with peanuts that you did not!
I can't resist eating a peanut or two right out of the jar when I'm adding a spoonful to my rice or noodles.

Amazing video! Only one store in my small town sells Lao Gan Ma and they only have the chili crisp and the one with the fermented turnips. I never knew there was more! I hope to try the bean and shiitake varieties soon. I'll keep my eye out. 😁

I love the fried chili in oil with peanuts. We keep a jar in the fridge. We enjoy putting some in at the very end of making stir fry. I'm not sure why but when we tried to cook it in the middle of the stir fry, it ended up with kind of a burnt flavor. We also like to top our rice with some lao gan ma fried chili w/ peanuts. Not sure what else to use it on, but I've tried a little on pizza, and while a different flavor, it was very good.

Love your content, as a foreigner learning Chinese it's even more helpful 😉 wish i discovered your channel when i was still in China, i would have brought another 行李 of 老干妈 😅

I appreciate the doggo's mouth is watering as much as mine the whole video.

Absolutely LOVE the fried chili in oil, with the peanuts. I just scoop out of the bottle too good.

A great service to the non-Chinese community to understand the spectrum of these wonderful condiments. Thank you and Bravo. PS - love the dog.

Great explanations so I can actually shop for Lao Gan Ma products and act like l know what I'm doing. Thanks. Your English is perfection.