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in a small bowl, before the wok goes on the heat

kecap manis + light soy + dark soy + oyster sauce + ketchup + sambal oelek + sesame oil + white pepper, stirred smooth = the sauce, set beside the stove. Every source in the set does this first for the same reason: once the wok is hot the entire dish takes four minutes, and there is no point in it where you can stop and measure seven things. Kecap manis is a thick palm-sugar syrup, not a thin soy — it will not disperse if you dribble it into a moving pan, and you will end up with sweet patches and bare strands