Every kitchen has that one bottle you grab when a dish needs saving. Ours is the all-purpose spicy sauce, built for the kind of cooking people actually do in the UK, where a Tuesday dinner does not always match a recipe card. We wanted something modern that still tastes like us, so we started from our fermented base and worked the heat around it.

It is not just chilli oil. Garlic and shallots go in early, then the fermented soy does the quiet work of rounding everything out. That is what lets it work as a dip or a quick stir-fry base. One bottle covers a few jobs, no second thoughts.

A student padding out instant ramen and a cook laying down a family banquet can both reach for it. The punch is there, but so is the savoury bottom note that makes food read as finished rather than just hot. We made it for people who would rather cook than fuss.

Once it is on the shelf it tends to stay there. Spoon it over pan-fried dumplings, stir it through garlic water spinach, or drop a little into wonton soup for extra depth. The fermented base means a small amount does a lot, and it keeps in the fridge for months after opening. For most UK shoppers, finding Asian cooking sauces this good on a normal shelf is still a small win.

What we did not want was a sauce that only works if you already know what you are doing. The label points to three easy moves: dumplings, greens, soup, and after that it is hard to go wrong. People have used it on baked eggs, on a cheese toastie, even mixed into mayo for a quick dip with chips. That is the point of an all-rounder: it earns its shelf space by turning up wherever the meal needs a lift.