I'd seen the can in markets many times over the years and hardly gave it a second glance (except to note the odd packaging). The translation of 'barbecue sauce' made me think of sticky-sweet 'barbecue pork' or char siu, and I wasn't interested. I never bothered to read the ingredients.

Earlier this month, I somehow came across this terrific article (I rarely look at Bon Appetit, for no good reason).
For Bon Appetit, Stacy Akazawa wrote:When I think of barbecue sauce, I don’t think of Kansas City, or Texas, or Carolina. I think of Chinese barbecue sauce, but not the sweet molasses-y char siu sauce you get with pork buns. I’m talking about Chinese satay or sacha sauce, the funky umami bomb found at hot pot restaurants, my favorite of which is Taiwan-made Bullhead Barbecue Sauce (you’ll recognize the silver can with a smiling bull in an apron posing with a fork and a knife). Inside the container you’ll find a glorious paste made of dried seafood, garlic, ginger, shallots, chile, and oil that can be used in a variety of recipes.
Dr Akazawa, a physician in San Francisco, goes on to write a love letter to her favorite condiment. When someone is this obsessive, it gets my attention. Two weeks later I had a can and things started falling into place.
Let's talk about the name a bit. The reason it's called barbecue sauce is because it's often used on barbecued meat skewers, satay in other words. This condiment bears no resemblance to the sauce of sweetened peanut butter beloved by American diners in Thai restaurants (I'm not saying peanut sauce isn't enjoyed in SE Asia as well). The following post from Chowhound is very informative.
On Chowhound, Teep wrote:Actually you can say that “sa cha” is a mispronunciation. This sauce originated in the Chiuchow (or Teochew) province where the dialect pronounces the character for cha as “de”. So it is meant to be “sa-de” I.e. satay. Nowadays most people just say “sa cha” - maybe they don’t know better, or maybe to distinguish it from the Thai/Indonesian version.
If that's true, and I have no reason to doubt it, it explains a lot.
Readers from the early days of LTHF and of Chowhound before LTHF probably see where this is headed. Yes, this is the sauce used in the infamous Chicken Satay served at Chinatown Cafe (this
old LTHF thread is some fun reading). For those too lazy to follow along, here's G Wiv's pre-LTHF description of the dish.
In 2002 on Chowhound, G Wiv wrote:My guilty pleasure is chicken satay over pan-fried noodles at China Town Café on South Wentworth. Now this may not sound like a dish that one should feel guilty about but, believe me, the way China Town Café prepares this dish, with enough grease to lube a Fruehauf, it's not a heart healthy dish.
CTC starts by sautéing sliced onions, though not to a Trotter like glowing caramelization, but hot and fast so there are burnt edges along with surprisingly sweet oniony notes. Next they toss in chunks of thinly sliced marinated chicken, which also gets the hot and fast treatment, this results in nicely contrasting textures and flavors. But, you say, where is the guilt, it comes in the form of a oily toasted hot pepper sauce that is called Satay Sauce, which CTC uses right from the bottle.
CTC's Satay Sauce is not anything similar to the Thai satay that most are familiar with, this is an rich oily cooking sauce that is loaded with toasted pepper flakes and various indecipherable spices. CTC uses about a pint of this oily sauce per order, well, not really, but the end result is incredibly oily. Still not enough of a 'guilty pleasure' for you, I eat it on top of pan-fried noodles. Yep, pan-fried noodles, a greasy/crispy perfect, tastes ooh sooo good, or however Mr. Food says it, toasty nest of noodles.
Still not enough of a 'guilty pleasure'? I top everything off with a few teaspoons of chili oil that CTC keeps on the tables. Talk about oily, this is a 6-napkin lunch, talk about wounded walruses, this is a pod of beached bleating whales on the shore, this, my fellow Chowhounds, is a Guilty Pleasure.
Couple of quick notes on CTC. CTC serves large to huge portions of very Americanized Chinese food in a no to low ambiance coffee shop setting. Seating is stools at a low counter or communal tables. At lunch, actually I don't think they are open for dinner, and if they are, they close very early, at least 50% of the patrons are law enforcement of some type, along with city workers, tradesmen etc, in other words, large guys who like large lunches.
Man, I miss Chinatown Cafe and their Chicken Satay. I was always confused by their use of the term 'satay,' but I think I understand things better now. I have a feeling the Bullhead version is a few big steps up from what Chinatown Cafe used, but it has to be related. In fact, the first recipe in the Bon Appetit article is for what's likely to be a more refined version of their Chicken Satay.
This is already too long, so I'll close by saying the sauce is absolutely delicious (though I haven't used it with chicken yet). With dried lizardfish as the second ingredient, how can it be otherwise?