Yu Kwen Yick Food Products

Yu Kwen Yick (YKY) makes some of my favorite chili sauce in the world.
The boy-​o and I ended up making two separate treks out to their little family-​owned brick and mortar to obtain nearly a dozen bottles of their outstanding chili sauce (specially made with fermented sweet potatoes). It has an incredible heat to it that definitely builds, but is also mild enough that it won’t completely mask the flavor of whatever item you’re dosing it with (noodles & char siu pair brilliantly with this stuff).
The bottles (unopened) should last about a year, which is a relief, considering that you can’t purchase any wholesale or imported outside of Hong Kong. Bottles run around $ 7 a pop, and YKY is a cash-​only operation, so plan accordingly.
Pro tip — message them on their Facebook page before making the visit, to verify their changing hours. The owner, Anthony, should get back to you fairly quickly!

A tribute to my favorite chili sauce from Hong Kong!
余均益 (Yu Kwen Yick) is the stuff of legends. That curious looking almost orange-​esque delight in a glass bottle has a simply irresistible flavor that doesn’t scorch your throat, and has a very light sweetness with a fermented sour finish. The main ingredient? Fermented sweet potatoes. Be careful with it, it is not soju!
This is a family run business that has been around for quite a number of decades. The founder is of Shunde (Shun Tak) extraction and has been doing this secret recipe the same way, literally stone grinding the fermented sweet potatoes and adding whatever is necessary to make this magic sauce. Thus batches are rather limited, and there is consistency in quality. There are no preservatives so try to consume within the expiration date.
The family that owns this business rarely does interviews, and they do not wholesale to supermarket chains. If you search high and low, you may find YKY available for sale at random smaller mom and pop grocery stores, because they are trying to help each other out. They do not export this chili sauce, so if you see it somewhere in Toronto or Richmond Hill at some supermarket, it was probably brought over by airplane/​hand carried.
So the easiest way to get it, is right here at this location. Call ahead before coming, you don’t want to trek here to find out they are closed.
This magic sauce… what can you add it to to make the dish taste infinitely better?
Dry fry beef chow fun — 干炒牛河 (the classic de facto pairing)
Fried noodles — 炒麵
Pan fried daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 (lor bak go)
Won Ton Noodles — 雲吞麵 (you will be very surprised that this is actually a classic pariring, particularly if the noodles have broth on the side)
Steamed rice rolls — 豬腸粉 (another classic pairing)
I even went so far as to bring the sauce over to a sushi restaurant and had them make a spicy tuna handroll with it. And holy shizzle miss dizzle, it was so damn good! (Though the chef was snickering and wondering WTF is this stuff.)