For me, the first time I tried it was in a staff canteen, where there was a little jar of Lao Gan Ma chilli oil unassumingly sitting on the side. I’d be hard pressed to remember much else about what that canteen had to offer but that powerhouse condiment irreversibly caught my attention. It would appear that the Crispy-Chilli-Oil-gods spotted it, took a shining on me and manufactured a way for me to be gifted a life-time supply of the very best of the stuff