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Sriracha Hot Sauce Catches Fire
- vinhboy 14y ago"Tran’s only supplier for the past 20 years has been Underwood Family Farms, an hour north of L.A" -- This is a pretty cool little factoid. I would have never guessed. A successful, locally made product, that does not need to sell itself as a "Whole Foods" type of ingredient.
- parsnips 14y agoAmazing that good products sell on their own, and don't need incessant moralizing about buying local.
- ahmadss 14y agoor massive, multi-million dollar ad buys and "agency of records" to promote the product.
- mixmastamyk 14y agoI've been there for a hayride/kids birthday party... bizarre.
- jmeekr 14y agoDoes anyone else experience that Businessweek has a 'laggy' site? In chrome - every once in a while my page fails to completely load and scrolling is frozen.
- chrismealy 14y agoAnd it's vegan: http://www.isitvegan.com/2010/10/09/is-sriracha-sauce-vegan/ http://www.isitvegan.com/2010/10/09/is-sriracha-sauce-vegan/
- c4urself 14y agoI read about halfway through the article before I realized they weren't talking about sriracha literally catching fire. Good read nonetheless.
- erickhill 14y agoI honestly clicked through in a mild panic thinking the factory in LA had caught fire. Was relieved to see it was more an in-depth feature article on the history of the founder and company. For those interested, here's the site last "Revised: May 10,2004" http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/index.htm http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/index.htm
- sharkweek 14y agoLooks like the YCombinator homepage markup! ==rimshot==
- mutagen 14y agoYes, and I'm disappointed that they didn't share the photo of the astronauts with Sriracha that they kept talking about, I assume this is it: http://meflyrocket.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/dinnerontheiss.jpg http://meflyrocket.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/dinnerontheis...
- jlgreco 14y agoWow, I was under the impression that they had to use special packaging for all of their food to keep crumbs/droplets at bay. That almost looks like a normal food setup, besides all the velcro.
- derekp7 14y agoI read an article recently about "space cuisine", which dispelled this myth -- it used to be that way, but what they go for now is more sticky stuff -- crumbs are still bad, but something like meatloaf with gravy would be fine.
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- Scramblejams 14y agoSingle page version here: http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/98238-sriracha-hot-sauce-catches-fire-yet-theres-only-one-rooster http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/98238-sriracha-...
- autarch 14y agoI live in Minneapolis, which has a ridiculous large number of Vietnamese restaurants. Pretty much every one of them has Huy Fong sriracha on the table. I don't know how long it's been common here, but it's been a long time. Honestly, it never occurred to me that there are places where people don't know about sriracha. It'd be like not knowing about soy sauce.
- mzarate06 14y agoI live in Minneapolis, which has a ridiculous large number of Vietnamese restaurants. Pretty much every one of them has Huy Fong sriracha on the table. Same here in Austin, though I do find I have to explain what it is on the rare occasion I meet someone that hasn't had Vietnamese food. I'll admit to enjoying Vietnamese food much more if I have sriracha; it's not the same eating experience with out it.
- jawngee 14y agoWeird, I grew up in Minneapolis, but now am in NYC and live half the year in Vietnam. No Huy Fong brand sriracha in Vietnam though.
- cageface 14y agoI've found some in import stores here but the Vietnamese I've shared it with here didn't like it. They prefer that sugary junk you get on the table everywhere.
- wildgift 14y agoIt was created in the US by a Chinese Vietnamese American. It's jalapeno chiles. They don't have it in Vietnam.
- autarch 14y agoIt's actually a Thai sauce, so I'm not sure you'd expect to find it in Vietnam. It's just really common in Vietnamese restaurants in Minneapolis here. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha_sauce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha_sauce
- bane 14y agoMy wife makes some kind of super addicting baked chicken thighs using a sauce mixed partially of Sriracha and Korean Gochujang [1] I don't know what it is in that mix, but you pretty much can't stop eating once you start it. I have relative, 3 or 4 years after trying a single piece of it, ask if they can have it when they come visit. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochujang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochujang
- mark_l_watson 14y agoMy wife and I ran out of sriracha sauce a few months ago; panic ensued :-) Seriously we use it all the time (and several recipes on my cookingspace.com site use it). Highly recommended!
- cmckay 14y agoI'm surprised they didn't mention the best tribute to sriracha of all: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha
- hudibras 14y agoUh, they did. There were a couple paragraphs on it.
- hudibras 14y agoI love this article from 2009, especially the description of the drunks dialing the phone number on the front of the bottle to leave slurred messages of love. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html?pagew...
- coldarchon 14y agoI'm a hot head. I have tasted almost any hot sauce and any hot chili, growing 14 different types of chili in my own garden. There's a bottle with 15 Bhut Jolokia in my kitchen waiting for BBQ season 2013. But whenever I taste Sriracha Hot Sauces I get the runs ..
- robomartin 14y agoPeople who are not into hot sauces don't understand the idea that a hot sauce can actually have great flavor. In most cases they think it just burns. Huy Fong Sriracha is a great example of a great hot sauce with good flavor. At the extreme there's "Dave's Insanity", a sauce that is probably able to send you to the hospital yet, if used in moderation, has great flavor. Tabasco? Really? Yuk. I can't understand why any self-respecting restaurant would even offer it.
- nnnnni 14y agoYeah, Tabasco and Frank's both taste like grass. They're disgusting =-( Sriracha and Sambal Oelek are the good ones!
- jlgreco 14y agoAs worthless as Tabasco is as a hot sauce (very), I think it works decently as a ketchup replacement. On french-fries, chicken nuggets, that sort of thing.
- jarin 14y agoI prefer Frank's Red Hot as a ketchup replacement. Tapatio or Cholula for Mexican food, and Sriracha for everything else.
- homosaur 14y agoYeah it's not great on it's own but it's a great ingredient. It also makes ketchup quite a bit better the twice a year I want it on something.
- Poiesis 14y agoI actually don't like ketchup, but I'll use Huy Fong Sriracha as a ketchup substitute. It's got the sugar like ketchup, but it has additional flavor than just your standard ketchup bland sweetness. What I think Tabasco excels at is dishes that traditionally are served with vinegar. The best example I've had is greens, like spinach or collard or turnip.
- therobot24 14y ago
- BryantD 14y agoAlso, suits are making a comeback! See also http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html. On the other hand, we like sriracha more than suits, for the most part.
- mindcrime 14y agoMost hot-sauce (especially the hotter kinds) don't taste good at all. I attribute that to the heavy use of Habanero pepper, which is pretty damn hot, but Habaneros don't actually taste very good. I've discovered a nice combination, however, that can be both hotter and taste better. Scotch Bonnet peppers[1] are widely used in the Caribbean Islands, and are almost, but not quite, as hot as as Habaneros, but they taste MUCH better. OTOH, Naga Jolokia "Ghost Pepper" peppers[2] are much hotter than Habaneros, and taste, well... not any worse than Habaneros, at worst. So, if you want to jazz something up to nuclear hot levels and keep it tasting good, load it down with Scotch Bonnet and then add just a few drips of Naga Jolokia pepper sauce. This has become my "go to" combination for making really hot tex-mex type dishes, curries, etc. Yumm.... FWIW, my favorite brand for both (at least partly because it's available retail locally) is the "Tropical Pepper Co. brand)[3][4]. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_bonnet_%28pepper%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_bonnet_%28pepper%29 [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naga_Bhut_Jolokia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naga_Bhut_Jolokia [3]: http://tropicalpepper.com/product.asp?idProduct=94 http://tropicalpepper.com/product.asp?idProduct=94 [4]: http://tropicalpepper.com/product.asp?idProduct=135 http://tropicalpepper.com/product.asp?idProduct=135
- mgcross 14y agoI think habanero peppers have a great flavor, but the heat usually overpowers them. Removing the seeds and gills, and adding vinegar and/or carrots can tame the heat.
- mindcrime 14y agoHabaneros were a staple for me, up until I discovered Scotch Bonnets. And then Harris Teeter started carrying a good bottled Naga Jolokia sauce, so now I rarely have a use for habaneros. To be fair though, the flavor does vary quite a bit from batch to batch. But I've come to the conclusion that, relatively speaking, habanero peppers are pretty bad from a flavor standpoint. Taste is, of course, pretty subjective, so I make no claim that my position is objectively correct!
- JoshTriplett 14y ago
- stuff4ben 14y agoFirst, I've never heard it referred to as "Rooster Sauce", it's always been "Cock Sauce". Maybe I need to hang out with some higher class folks. Second, while it's great on lots of Asian foods (Korean BBQ comes to mind along with Pho), I tend to prefer stuff like Texas Pete or Tabasco. I live in the South, so maybe that's why. A little Texas Pete on some pulled pork (vinegar-based) and collards makes it just right.
- snarfy 14y agoSriracha is for asian food. Tapatio is for mexican food.
- desigooner 14y agoTry mixing some Sriracha in Mayonaise and slather it on a sandwich or have it with fries. Great combo IMO
- gareim 14y agoThat's actually how a lot of sushi restaurants make their spicy mayo sauce. Learned it from a chef and I tried it at home to great success!
- homosaur 14y agoSriracha is for anything, it's basically like ketchup. You could probably put it on brownies and it would taste good. If you want sauce for your Mexican food then it ought to be made in house. If it NEEDS sauce, then you need to find a new Mexican place to eat at.
- wildgift 14y agoTapatio is good. Spicy, and an almost smoky chile flavor, but it's not a roasted chile. It's just the regular chile flavor.
- akavi 14y ago"Cock Sauce" for me too. Assonant and slightly inappropriate's the way I like my condiment nicknames.
- doktrin 14y agoHaving practically grown up with this stuff, it's definitely been interesting to see its popularity skyrocket in recent years. There's certainly a valid lesson in market adoption & product incubation to be had here.
- mattmaroon 14y agoI love how this article mentions that sriracha is shelf stable without the fact that it's due to the addition of Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Bisulfite. If you're willing to add that you can probably make anything last on a countertop, but alas they've removed it from my diet as a result. Anyone know of a respectable all-natural version?
- justin66 14y ago> Sodium Bisulfite Do you actually experience a medical reaction to this? How common is that?
- threedaymonk 14y agoMy understanding is that it's relatively common. You commonly find sulphites as preservatives in wines (more of it in whites: reds get some protection from the tannins). A family member is slightly allergic, and drinking wine with sulphites will set him off sneezing.
- justin66 14y agoI recall reading on Felix Salmon's blog that organic, no-sulfite wines are a comparative bargain because there's an inaccurate perception among wine people that they cannot be as good. Some wineries will actually get the relevant eco-friendly certifications without noting it on the bottle, the perception of lesser quality is so prevalent. In the wine instance the buyer who needs to avoid sulfites is in a good position. I've noticed with other foodstuffs that this isn't true, and I'm sure that is because those perishable products can't survive on the shelves quite as long as their sulfited (?) brethren.
- notthemessiah 14y agoIf you live in New York or wish to get it over the web, there's always Jojo's: http://laughingsquid.com/jojos-sriracha-handcrafted-small-batch-chili-sauce-made-in-brooklyn/ http://laughingsquid.com/jojos-sriracha-handcrafted-small-ba...
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- lucasjans 14y agoI've been living in Vietnam for 3 months. At first when eating phở I noticed something was off. It took a few weeks to place the problem: no sriracha! Here they serve tương ớt that tastes more sweet than spicy and has the consistency similar to jello. So a few weeks ago I found an import store that supplies a sriracha sauce from Thailand. Quite similar to Huy Fong's version... And enough to my "international" phở taste the way i like it.
- wildgift 14y ago91770 in the house
- joycer 14y agoJoJo's is the only Sriracha... https://www.facebook.com/loveofjojo https://www.facebook.com/loveofjojo
- greggman 14y agoStupid me thought this was a Vietnamese sauce since I always saw in it Vietnamese restaurants in the OC. It wasn't until I was outside the USA that I found it Vietnamese have never heard of the stuff and that it comes from Thailand. doh! Good stuff though.
- jpatokal 14y agoEven more confusingly, the Thai original is only vaguely related to Huy Fong's version. The ingredients are roughly the same, but the Thai version is runnier and more vinegary/sweet.
- Poiesis 14y agoCould we just get a petition going or something to get this sauce in condiment packets? Last time I asked they didn't do this. No idea what the impediments would be (supply constraints? Fermentation?)
- sbi 14y agoI love spicy food, but I find Sriracha almost sickly-sweet. Anyone else prefer El Yucateco or Salsa Valentina?