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And despite it not tasting like the original Thai Sriracha sauce. Edit: the Thai version is thinner, tangier and a toucher sweeter, and made from spur chillies

And despite it not tasting like the original Thai Sriracha sauce. Edit: the Thai version is thinner, tangier and a toucher sweeter, and made from spur chillies, not jalapeños. [1] [2] [3] [1] https://shesimmers.com/2010/03/homemade-sriracha-how-to-make-authentic.html https://shesimmers.com/2010/03/homemade-sriracha-how-to-make... [2] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/01/16/681944292/in-home-of-original-sriracha-sauce-thais-say-rooster-brand-is-nothing-to-crow-ab https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/01/16/681944292/in... [3] https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/what-is-sriracha-sauce https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/what-is-sriracha-sauce Not saying the Tran sauce is bad; just different.

rplnt 5y ago
Is the sauce that I get in every Asian restaurant not the same Sriracha? edit: clicked on the link, it seems to be that one, I think?
- dafelst 5y ago
  Sri Racha is a town in Thailand, Sriracha sauce is named after that town and is ostensibly an attempt to replicate the sauce that originated from there - apparently it misses the mark a bit in terms of authenticity, but obviously it is still pretty great.
  - Alupis 5y ago
    The popular Huy Fong Foods product (green cap, roster on bottle) uses red jalapenos as it's primary pepper. Of course jalapenos are grown in Thailand today, but I'd wager the original sauce used a different, more local pepper.
    - nwallin 5y ago
      > Of course jalapenos are grown in Thailand today, but I'd wager the original sauce used a different, more local pepper. The entire genus of capsicums are new world plants, and would have been unknown prior to the Columbian exchange. The family includes tomatoes, potatoes and bell peppers, which are all native to South America. There is no "local" pepper in Thailand- all of it was imported. edit: there's black pepper and long pepper, but that's... not the same thing.
      - ginko 5y ago
        There's still cultivars that have been grown for hundreds of years over there, so I would consider them 'local', just not native. On a side note, there's a bunch of articles claiming peppers have been used in East Asia before the Columbian exchange. Like this one[1] for example. These usually have a bit of a nationalist bend since the implication is that the local chili heavy cuisine has been unchanged for millennia. It's an interesting thought experiment at least. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352618114000043# https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235261811...!
        jrochkind1 5y ago
        Yeah, and almost certainly not true. > These usually have a bit of a nationalist bend since the implication is that the local chili heavy cuisine has been unchanged for millennia. Why do we have the need to claim that our cultures have been unchanged for millenia? Almost none have, human culture is remarkably adaptive and changing, and every time two cultures meet they change each other, adopt each others food and music etc -- and why wouldn't they? These days almost all humans/cultures are insisting that their "authentic" culture is unchanged for millenia though. I don't know if it's always been that way (see what I did there haha). I think it's actually a very right-wing sort of thing, harkening back to an imaginary "authentic" past when things were, uh, great. It's effecting our very understanding of culture, we all think that "real" culture is unchanging forever -- which is not how humans work at all! Or that in some distant past, all culture existed entirely silo'd without interacting or influencing each other, merging with each other and splitting off from each other -- also not how hardly any actually existing human populations have existed through time!
        InitialLastName 5y ago
        My favorite is when people claim their culture has never changed out of one side of their mouth, and then whine about the new music their kids listen to out of the other.
        ch4s3 5y ago
        From the article: > The recent research states that gochu appeared on the earth billions of years ago [4], and might have been transferred by the birds that ate them That seems like a rather incredible claim, and I imagine it’s probably untrue.
    - busymom0 5y ago
      I remember watching some video few years ago about how due to some reason, they had to change the peppers or the soil it was grown on or something (I apologize if this is my faulty memory, I could be totally wrong). Are the red jalapeños which Huy Fong Foods brand uses any different from the thai version in terms of taste?
      - mark-r 5y ago
        That was my understanding too, maybe I saw the same source. Huy Fong was very particular about the source of their peppers, they were constrained for a while by not being able to get enough of the ones that met their standard.
  - rat87 5y ago
    I don't think that's accurate David Tran is not from Sri Racha or Thailand, he's a Chinese-Vietnamese refugee/immigrant to America Sri Racha wasn't his first hot sauce just the most successful. He was trying to make hot sauces especially aimed at local asian restaurants not to perfectly replicate an authentic Thai recipe he was inspired by. It doesn't miss the mark because it wasn't aiming for it https://www.bangkokpost.com/print/640796/ https://www.bangkokpost.com/print/640796/ > “I considered Sriracha a Thai sauce when I made my version,” Mr Tran explained in an email. “There were already Srirachas in the market when I started making my style. I took the original Sriracha and made it enjoyable to my taste.”
  - ajsnigrutin 5y ago
    Is it really that specific? We have many "<town/village> <foodname>" here, and basiclly every grandma in that town/village, has a slighty different recipe, with a slightly different "secret ingredient" or even with major changes (think chilli vs texas chilli)
    - sirn 5y ago
      Even though the origin of Sri Racha sauce is debated (even in Thailand), it was the recipe used by a small shop named "Sriraja Panich" that became known as the Sri Racha sauce in Thailand. The popularity of Sriraja Panich's recipe inspired other brands in Thailand to make a sauce with similar ingredients and taste. Only after then it became known as a type of a sauce. Today, even though every sauce brand in Thailand has started producing a Sri Racha-type sauce, many Thais still only considered Sriraja Panich's sauce to be the authentic one.
- 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
  Nope. The style has been around for a long time and other SEAsian countries have their brands. I used to consume a lot of a different brand when I was a kid and always thought it was funny when this particular brand caught on in western countries. I never thought it was very good.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
    I just want to be clear I’m not telling anyone what to like. You like what you like. I’m just surprised this is the one that became popular. Use the sauce you want!
  - jrochkind1 5y ago
    It's initial popularity was apparently through SE asian "ethnic" restaurants catering to immigrants too, it seems like? But yeah, in the end we like what we like -- I'm a non-immigrant American, I definitely liked the huy fong one the first time I tried it (in the mid-90s?), and still do, and I'm not ashamed regardless of how "authentic" it is. :)
- garmaine 5y ago
  It's a California fusion food which has spread world-wide. Sibling comment is incorrect; it is at most "inspired by" the original Thai sauce. It's made with the California-native Jalapeño ingredients you might expect in a Mexican restaurant, not South East Asian cuisine.
  - deleted 5y ago
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  - deleted 5y ago
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TobiasA 5y ago
I don't see how it's despite of that. Original doesn't always mean better.
- cunthorpe 5y ago
  To put it in clearer terms, this is like selling a "Chicago-style pizza" but putting cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella. This new version can be successful, but it's still not the original Chicago-style pizza.
  - asah 5y ago
    You mean that casserole :-) https://youtube.com/watch?v=jCgYMFtxUUw https://youtube.com/watch?v=jCgYMFtxUUw
    - nsxwolf 5y ago
      You can always tell when someone's never eaten it when they describe it as a casserole or lasagne. There's no way you could eat it and describe it that way. Also, a minority of "Chicago style" pizza is deep dish.
      - jessaustin 5y ago
        [EDIT:] It's amusing that Chicago people are doing this same "we are so misunderstood by the people who pay attention to our marketing" thing seen elsewhere ITT from Europeans. Is it possible for an American city to succeed in this maneuver, or is it a Europe-only thing? All Chicago-style pizzas, fat or thin, are strictly inferior to St Louis-style pizza.
        long_time_gone 5y ago
        ==After all most of the time people like to eat decent pizza.== Considering Pizza Hut is the largest chain in America, I have to disagree. Chicago Tavern-style pizza is the only type I ever see locals eating in Chicago. Deep dish is mostly for tourists. Bon Appetit agrees: Chicago’s Real Signature Pizza Is Crispy, Crunchy, and Nothing Like Deep Dish link: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/real-chicago-pizza-tavern-style https://www.bonappetit.com/story/real-chicago-pizza-tavern-s...
papito 5y ago
There was a long piece on the beginnings of Sriracha in LA (I cannot find it because there are many), but what stood out to me specifically was it talking about how "back home" the American Sriracha was the shit.
CaptainZapp 5y ago
The Thai version, at least the one available in supermarkets here, has too much of a distinct garlicky taste for my taste buds. It really is a matter of taste I suppose.
- fnord123 5y ago
  What does "too much of a distinct garlicky taste" mean? How can you possibly have too much garlic?
  - jffry 5y ago
    Not everybody likes the same foods or flavors as you, and that's okay.
  - dsr_ 5y ago
    Try a spoonful of toum.
    - lovegoblin 5y ago
      Happily.
  - CaptainZapp 5y ago
    I love garlic, the more the better. The problem with the Flying Goose sauce (yeah, that's the one) is that the taste is more like garlic powder, which I think tastes disgusting. BTW: I think it's a fair question, so I really don't get the downvotes.
- jozvolskyef 5y ago
  I accidentally bought the brand that is more common in Britain (Flying Goose). It wasn't as spicy as I expected so I put a fair dose in my tortilla and now I can't even think about it without feeling nauseous because it was way too salty and garlicky. The British variant apparently has 5x the amount of salt, is less spicy, and tastes strongly of garlic. And yet it uses the exact same visual design of the bottle, pretending to be the same thing.
buckhx 5y ago
Team Shark Brand here. It's sweeter and spicier, though I do wish it came in a bottle smaller than 750ml...
auiya 5y ago
I much prefer the flavor of the Sriraja Panich brand you find in the Asian markets. But the squeeze-bottle packaging/pour of the Huy Fong stuff is definitely more convenient than the glass ketchup bottle style package Sriraja Panich comes in over here. I've never seen it in a squeeze bottle package like that second article shows.
jfengel 5y ago
It surprised me just how sweet authentic Thai cuisine is. Usually, American food is sweeter than its origins. In the case of Thai food, Americans may actually have toned down the sweetness a bit.
- mark-r 5y ago
  Thai food is an interesting case. The Thai government has recognized that food is great at breaking down cultural barriers, and they've gone to great lengths to promote it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17770707 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17770707
rattray 5y ago
Despite? Because! The US has a different flavor culture than SE Asia (though Huy Fong did get its start selling to SE Asian immigrants in the US). I've tried more "authentic" Srirachas and don't like them at all (taste like cheap sweet ketchup to me). I eat Huy Fong almost daily (I have no Asian heritage).
lordlimecat 5y ago
I just always called it rooster sauce and avoided this whole debate.

rplnt 5y ago

Is the sauce that I get in every Asian restaurant not the same Sriracha? edit: clicked on the link, it seems to be that one, I think?

dafelst 5y ago
Sri Racha is a town in Thailand, Sriracha sauce is named after that town and is ostensibly an attempt to replicate the sauce that originated from there - apparently it misses the mark a bit in terms of authenticity, but obviously it is still pretty great.
- Alupis 5y ago
  The popular Huy Fong Foods product (green cap, roster on bottle) uses red jalapenos as it's primary pepper. Of course jalapenos are grown in Thailand today, but I'd wager the original sauce used a different, more local pepper.
  - nwallin 5y ago
    > Of course jalapenos are grown in Thailand today, but I'd wager the original sauce used a different, more local pepper. The entire genus of capsicums are new world plants, and would have been unknown prior to the Columbian exchange. The family includes tomatoes, potatoes and bell peppers, which are all native to South America. There is no "local" pepper in Thailand- all of it was imported. edit: there's black pepper and long pepper, but that's... not the same thing.
    - ginko 5y ago
      There's still cultivars that have been grown for hundreds of years over there, so I would consider them 'local', just not native. On a side note, there's a bunch of articles claiming peppers have been used in East Asia before the Columbian exchange. Like this one[1] for example. These usually have a bit of a nationalist bend since the implication is that the local chili heavy cuisine has been unchanged for millennia. It's an interesting thought experiment at least. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352618114000043# https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235261811...!
      - jrochkind1 5y ago
        Yeah, and almost certainly not true. > These usually have a bit of a nationalist bend since the implication is that the local chili heavy cuisine has been unchanged for millennia. Why do we have the need to claim that our cultures have been unchanged for millenia? Almost none have, human culture is remarkably adaptive and changing, and every time two cultures meet they change each other, adopt each others food and music etc -- and why wouldn't they? These days almost all humans/cultures are insisting that their "authentic" culture is unchanged for millenia though. I don't know if it's always been that way (see what I did there haha). I think it's actually a very right-wing sort of thing, harkening back to an imaginary "authentic" past when things were, uh, great. It's effecting our very understanding of culture, we all think that "real" culture is unchanging forever -- which is not how humans work at all! Or that in some distant past, all culture existed entirely silo'd without interacting or influencing each other, merging with each other and splitting off from each other -- also not how hardly any actually existing human populations have existed through time!
        InitialLastName 5y ago
        My favorite is when people claim their culture has never changed out of one side of their mouth, and then whine about the new music their kids listen to out of the other.
      - ch4s3 5y ago
        From the article: > The recent research states that gochu appeared on the earth billions of years ago [4], and might have been transferred by the birds that ate them That seems like a rather incredible claim, and I imagine it’s probably untrue.
  - busymom0 5y ago
    I remember watching some video few years ago about how due to some reason, they had to change the peppers or the soil it was grown on or something (I apologize if this is my faulty memory, I could be totally wrong). Are the red jalapeños which Huy Fong Foods brand uses any different from the thai version in terms of taste?
    - mark-r 5y ago
      That was my understanding too, maybe I saw the same source. Huy Fong was very particular about the source of their peppers, they were constrained for a while by not being able to get enough of the ones that met their standard.
- rat87 5y ago
  I don't think that's accurate David Tran is not from Sri Racha or Thailand, he's a Chinese-Vietnamese refugee/immigrant to America Sri Racha wasn't his first hot sauce just the most successful. He was trying to make hot sauces especially aimed at local asian restaurants not to perfectly replicate an authentic Thai recipe he was inspired by. It doesn't miss the mark because it wasn't aiming for it https://www.bangkokpost.com/print/640796/ https://www.bangkokpost.com/print/640796/ > “I considered Sriracha a Thai sauce when I made my version,” Mr Tran explained in an email. “There were already Srirachas in the market when I started making my style. I took the original Sriracha and made it enjoyable to my taste.”
- ajsnigrutin 5y ago
  Is it really that specific? We have many "<town/village> <foodname>" here, and basiclly every grandma in that town/village, has a slighty different recipe, with a slightly different "secret ingredient" or even with major changes (think chilli vs texas chilli)
  - sirn 5y ago
    Even though the origin of Sri Racha sauce is debated (even in Thailand), it was the recipe used by a small shop named "Sriraja Panich" that became known as the Sri Racha sauce in Thailand. The popularity of Sriraja Panich's recipe inspired other brands in Thailand to make a sauce with similar ingredients and taste. Only after then it became known as a type of a sauce. Today, even though every sauce brand in Thailand has started producing a Sri Racha-type sauce, many Thais still only considered Sriraja Panich's sauce to be the authentic one.
2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
Nope. The style has been around for a long time and other SEAsian countries have their brands. I used to consume a lot of a different brand when I was a kid and always thought it was funny when this particular brand caught on in western countries. I never thought it was very good.
- 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
  I just want to be clear I’m not telling anyone what to like. You like what you like. I’m just surprised this is the one that became popular. Use the sauce you want!
- jrochkind1 5y ago
  It's initial popularity was apparently through SE asian "ethnic" restaurants catering to immigrants too, it seems like? But yeah, in the end we like what we like -- I'm a non-immigrant American, I definitely liked the huy fong one the first time I tried it (in the mid-90s?), and still do, and I'm not ashamed regardless of how "authentic" it is. :)
garmaine 5y ago
It's a California fusion food which has spread world-wide. Sibling comment is incorrect; it is at most "inspired by" the original Thai sauce. It's made with the California-native Jalapeño ingredients you might expect in a Mexican restaurant, not South East Asian cuisine.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

TobiasA 5y ago

I don't see how it's despite of that. Original doesn't always mean better.

cunthorpe 5y ago
To put it in clearer terms, this is like selling a "Chicago-style pizza" but putting cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella. This new version can be successful, but it's still not the original Chicago-style pizza.
- asah 5y ago
  You mean that casserole :-) https://youtube.com/watch?v=jCgYMFtxUUw https://youtube.com/watch?v=jCgYMFtxUUw
  - nsxwolf 5y ago
    You can always tell when someone's never eaten it when they describe it as a casserole or lasagne. There's no way you could eat it and describe it that way. Also, a minority of "Chicago style" pizza is deep dish.
    - jessaustin 5y ago
      [EDIT:] It's amusing that Chicago people are doing this same "we are so misunderstood by the people who pay attention to our marketing" thing seen elsewhere ITT from Europeans. Is it possible for an American city to succeed in this maneuver, or is it a Europe-only thing? All Chicago-style pizzas, fat or thin, are strictly inferior to St Louis-style pizza.
      - long_time_gone 5y ago
        ==After all most of the time people like to eat decent pizza.== Considering Pizza Hut is the largest chain in America, I have to disagree. Chicago Tavern-style pizza is the only type I ever see locals eating in Chicago. Deep dish is mostly for tourists. Bon Appetit agrees: Chicago’s Real Signature Pizza Is Crispy, Crunchy, and Nothing Like Deep Dish link: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/real-chicago-pizza-tavern-style https://www.bonappetit.com/story/real-chicago-pizza-tavern-s...

papito 5y ago

There was a long piece on the beginnings of Sriracha in LA (I cannot find it because there are many), but what stood out to me specifically was it talking about how "back home" the American Sriracha was the shit.

CaptainZapp 5y ago

The Thai version, at least the one available in supermarkets here, has too much of a distinct garlicky taste for my taste buds. It really is a matter of taste I suppose.

fnord123 5y ago
What does "too much of a distinct garlicky taste" mean? How can you possibly have too much garlic?
- jffry 5y ago
  Not everybody likes the same foods or flavors as you, and that's okay.
- dsr_ 5y ago
  Try a spoonful of toum.
  - lovegoblin 5y ago
    Happily.
- CaptainZapp 5y ago
  I love garlic, the more the better. The problem with the Flying Goose sauce (yeah, that's the one) is that the taste is more like garlic powder, which I think tastes disgusting. BTW: I think it's a fair question, so I really don't get the downvotes.
jozvolskyef 5y ago
I accidentally bought the brand that is more common in Britain (Flying Goose). It wasn't as spicy as I expected so I put a fair dose in my tortilla and now I can't even think about it without feeling nauseous because it was way too salty and garlicky. The British variant apparently has 5x the amount of salt, is less spicy, and tastes strongly of garlic. And yet it uses the exact same visual design of the bottle, pretending to be the same thing.

buckhx 5y ago

Team Shark Brand here. It's sweeter and spicier, though I do wish it came in a bottle smaller than 750ml...

auiya 5y ago

I much prefer the flavor of the Sriraja Panich brand you find in the Asian markets. But the squeeze-bottle packaging/pour of the Huy Fong stuff is definitely more convenient than the glass ketchup bottle style package Sriraja Panich comes in over here. I've never seen it in a squeeze bottle package like that second article shows.

jfengel 5y ago

It surprised me just how sweet authentic Thai cuisine is. Usually, American food is sweeter than its origins. In the case of Thai food, Americans may actually have toned down the sweetness a bit.

mark-r 5y ago
Thai food is an interesting case. The Thai government has recognized that food is great at breaking down cultural barriers, and they've gone to great lengths to promote it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17770707 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17770707

rattray 5y ago

Despite? Because! The US has a different flavor culture than SE Asia (though Huy Fong did get its start selling to SE Asian immigrants in the US). I've tried more "authentic" Srirachas and don't like them at all (taste like cheap sweet ketchup to me). I eat Huy Fong almost daily (I have no Asian heritage).

lordlimecat 5y ago

I just always called it rooster sauce and avoided this whole debate.