Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

People say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and I will admit, I had my hesitations. I’m an over ten year Laoganma chili oil devotee, and found it hard to imagine anything could ever be comparable, let alone better. But when a friend of mine recommended this product, I thought, hey I’m stuck in the house for the foreseeable future. Why not try something new? Let’s get the negatives out of the way first: is this on the pricier side of chili oil? Yeah. Is it clearly marketed for young 20-30 something hipsters and foodies? Also yes. But, most importantly, is this chili oil good enough that a Chinese grandma would gladly douse over her food at a hole in the wall Sam Woo restaurant with chipped tiles and teacups as old as the Cold War? To my utter pleasure: also yes. Sometimes when food gets marketed to the dominant culture, a lot of what makes it great gets lost in translation. It gets toned down or sterilized to the point it’s not even recognizable to the people who’s culture it came from. Even more patronizing, sometimes people try to “elevate” a food as if it wasn’t good enough to begin with. But I’m happy to say this isn’t the case with Fly By Jing chili crisp. It’s elevated, not because its predecessors were inferior, but because they WERE great. This chili oil isn’t trying to do something new, it’s simply saying, “I know why you love chili oil. Let’s try and get this to be the best possible version it can be.” And I think that can only be done by someone connected to the culture who is celebrating a wildly revered condiment. The flavors of this chili oil are deep and complex. It’s not necessarily the spiciest or has the most intense numbing flavor among chili oils I’ve tried, but there is something deeply unctuous of how all parts of the chili oil are. Some chili oils have a great texture, but the oil itself tastes just like that-oil. This one’s flavor permeated all throughout the jar, even without the added crispy chili bits. So will this replace my ultimate love, Laoganma? No. But is this going to be the last jar of Fly by Jing Chili Crisp I buy? Definitely not! I’m excited to experiment with this chili oil and see how I can take advantage of the flavor aside as a topping for my dumplings or fried rice, and rather than domination, I’m excited to see how this plays in tandem with my other tried and true chili oil and hot sauce favorites. This chili oil definitely made a devotee out of me.