Scouting Report: Milu sauces, created by the ex-culinary director of Eleven Madison Park Connie Chung, pack a punch that feels both expected and surprising. The chili crisp and chili oil are standouts in a sea of social-media-fueled sauces.

If there’s one regional cuisine I eat more often than any other, it’s Asian food, specifically Chinese — whether that’s ordering wonton soup from the hole-in-the-wall spot by my apartment, splurging on upscale dishes with friends, or shoving dim sum into my hungover body with the force to spend the Lazy Susan spinning. What never fails to impress me are the sauces and accouterments that come with Chinese cuisine, which is why I jumped at the chance to try the new batch of sauces from the former culinary director of Eleven Madison Park, Connie Chung.

Milu Chili Crisp

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We all know that chili crisp at this point could get its own parade. Fly by Jing took the Instagram world by storm (I’m still partial to the classic Lao Gan Ma), but the Milu chili crisp has a Schezuan bite that I enjoy much more thanks to the addition of chili flakes. The chili oil, on the other hand, has a numbing quality that is perfect to toss popcorn in. I haven’t had a chance to try the other option — Hoisin, Dumpling, and Everything Spice — but I have a feeling they’ll be just as good.

Having these types of sauces and ingredients at your fingertips is an advantage unlike any other. Chinese cuisine packs so much flavor and spice into such simple mixtures. They add a complex flavor to practically anything, from eggs to pasta. I doused a cucumber in the chili crisp and it was the perfect 3:00 pm snack. It’s easy to forget about the simple things, but these Milu sauces make it possible to go the extra mile without any effort.

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