Clem's Pippies in XO Sauce with Crispy Vermicelli
 
 

Pippies (a white Clam - Meretrix lyrata) in XO sauce apparently originated in 1980s Sydney at the Golden Century Chinese restaurant (now defunct). XO sauce despite in name, contains no XO brandy. It is actually a thickish sauce (rather a paste) made with dried scallops, dried shrimps, Jinhua ham, chilli, garlic and oil. Its allusion to XO brandy is merely to impart a sense of luxury.

It is not a difficult dish to recreate, except perhaps for frying the crispy vermicelli. Here's how to make this dish:

 

INGREDIENTS

  • Around 1 kg of pippies.
    These days, frozen pippies (such as those imported from Vietnam) are readily available form seafood vendors in Sydney.

    You can also opt from fresh (live) pippies although you would pay a premium price for those. You should de-sand live shellfish such as pippies by holding them several hours in a saltwater bath (3 - 3.5% table salt).
     

  • 2 - 3 tablespoons of XO sauce.

    I used this brand:



 

  • A few cloves of garlic (chopped).
     
  • A teaspoon of minced ginger.
     
  • Several stalks of Spring Onions.
     
  • Sliced chilli if desired.
     
  • A few tablespoons of wheat flour.
     
    •
  • Condiments e.g. chicken stock powder; pepper.
     

METHOD

Make the crispy Vermicelli

  1. Divide your vermicelli into portion sizes.
    The Wai Wai brand of rice vermicelli has a pack size with individual serving sized portions (50 g):



 

  1. Heat a large quantity (enough to submerge the rice vermicelli portion) to  high heat - an easy test is to dip the tip of a wooden/bamboo chopping stick into the hot oil. If you see bust bubbling on the chopstick end, the oil is hot enough.
     

  2. Take 50 g of rice vermicelli straight from the packaging and dump it with care into the hot oil, making sure that all the vermicelli is covered in oil at some stage.

    The vermicelli will immediately fluff/puff up.

    Remove the crispy vermicelli quickly from the hot oil, and drain on some paper towels.
     

  3. Set aside the vermicelli until plating time.

 

Cook the pippies

  1. Cut the Spring Onions into white and green parts.
     
  2. In a few tablespoons of cooking oil, fry the minced ginger and whites of the Spring Onions, and then add the chopped garlic.
     
  3. When the garlic is smelt, add the XO sauce and fry some more.

    You may add sliced chilli at this stage if desired.
     
  4. Now add the pippies (drained of any water) and the rest of the Spring Onions to the fry and stir for some minutes.
     
  5. Make a few tablespoons of wheat flour into a slurry with room temperature water.
     
  6. Add the flour slurry slowly to the fry while stirring well to ensure the resulting gravy is lump free. Fry until all the flour is cooked.
     
  7. Adjust the thickness of gravy by adding more flour slurry or water as appropriate.
     
  8. Now taste the dish and adjust with condiments as desired.

     

Plating

  1. When served at restaurants, the crispy vermicelli is laid down at the bottom of the serving plate and the pippies in sauce and ladled over the noodles.
     
  2. I prefer to ladle the pippies onto a plate first and then place portions of crispy vermicelli on to top of the pippies so that crispiness of the noodles is preserved.

 

 

ENJOY!
 

  


Clem's Pippies in XO Sauce with Crispy Vermicelli

 

 

www.clemkuek.com

 

18 June 2026
 

 



Created by Clem Kuek