XO Sauce Phoenix Cookies by Kee Wah

This came from Hong Kong - the Hong Kong bakery chain Kee Wah to be specific. XO sauce is officially a type of spicy seafood sauce used in Cantonese cuisine, which sometimes contains pork, but not in this version based on the ingredients list. (That, I've seen XO is a liquor as well and I've seen it used to describe other Chinese condiments made from a kickass assortment of ingredients that makes your eyes sparkle upon contact with your tongue. Or something like that.)

But why then are they called Phoenix Cookies? After researching, there are a few different versions of the origins circulating online. The version that made the most sense to me was that it originated in Guangdong province in China. A maid was ordered to produce some authentic Guangdong snack for her master's guests, but there were no ingredients left, so she used leftover Five Nuts Mooncake (五仁月餅) and added some cured and candied meat (sometimes described as ham) to invent this amazing cake. (Five Nuts Mooncakes also routinely include ham as an ingredient, however.) Her name's literal meaning was "Little Phoenix" (小凤 or Xiao Feng), so the cake got dubbed after her. And this is the cookie version of that cake with XO sauce.

 Anyway, these were rather crunchy cookies that came in rather assorted popcorn sizes and shapes. "Popcorn" as in popcorn chicken, for instance. They're about 2-4cm in diameter/length each.
Kee Wah's XO Sauce Phoenix Cookies packaging.The cookies were assorted in size and shape.
I think to understand the taste, you would first have to survey the ingredients list, which is pretty colourful indeed (figuratively)... certainly not something that most people would associate with cookies, although I've seen some innovations in the Singapore scene where cookie flavours are based off local savoury dishes. (Click the photo to enlarge.)
An ingredients list most wouldn't associate with cookies.
The ingredients that made me go wide-eyed were dried shrimp, chicken powder and rose wine, whatever that is. There were also a lot of other notable ingredients which contributed to the taste: black melon seed, malt sugar, white sesame seed, pepper and chilli powder.

 Here's a picture of the inside, which shows some of the filling, although even to me I found it hard to see exactly what the filling was supposed to be without referring to the ingredients list. I suppose what you mostly see are the nuts and seeds embedded in maltose.
The filling looked mostly like nuts and seeds embedded in malt sugar.
Taste-wise, the first thing that struck me was that it was VERY savoury and spicy indeed! Although chilli powder is the last ingredient to be listed, it was pretty spicy. Well, not enough to make me cry, but considering that I'm a Singaporean, and that this *is* after all a cookie, I guess the spiciness would take one by surprise on the first bite.

 Then, there was a very strong sesame-infused dried shrimp flavour... it reminded me of hebi hiam, which is a local paste of dried shrimp sambal.

The other noteworthy part of the experience is that once you got past the very crunchy cookie exterior, the filling was very firm and chewy, like maltose candy that would stick to your teeth. That would be the effect of the malt sugar kicking in I suppose. I liked the crunch, but I hated that stickily chewy part of the texture.

Overall, I would describe it as a very tasty Chinese appetiser that you can crunch on. It's really worth trying! 

There's a related snack called the Chicken Biscuit, which is a continuation of the Xiao Feng's story - be sure to check it out!

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