Spicy Memories Volume 29: Here Comes the Rooster

I first discovered Huy Fong Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce when I saw it sitting on the table of a cheap  Chinese restaurant in Carson City, NV, of all places. This is especially surprising when you consider that I spent the first 23 years of my life living right on the edge of Chinatown in San Francisco.  Yes, yes, I know that Huy Fong's Sriracha is a Vietnamese variation of a Thai sauce, but I'm saying it's funny that I grew up in a major city, surrounded by several cultures and cuisines, and it took me moving to a much smaller, much less ethnically diverse city to discover Sriracha.

Ubiquity!

Sriracha is the sauce that made me realize I probably did like hot sauce after all.  After Tabasco scared me off of hot sauces, I spent several years in my young adulthood simply sprinkling cayenne pepper on food in order to make it spicier.  This was mostly effective, but not the most flavorful or pleasant way to add heat to things.

But then I sat there in that restaurant in northern Nevada with a bowl of won ton soup in front of me and this big bottle on the table caught my eye.  It was a red-orange sauce with a bright green cap and a little rooster on it.  I mused aloud about it and the friend who was with me said, "Oh, yeah...that's rooster sauce.  I mean, it has a real name, but all my friends call it rooster sauce.  It's really good!"

I was intrigued, but hesitant.

I have to pause for a confession.  I am actually, by nature, a huge coward about spicy food.  Perhaps it's because I'm from the Land of the Bland.  Perhaps it's because I was always a picky eater growing up.  Or maybe it's just an expression of my general, deep-seated cowardice.  Whatever the source, my traditional first instinct when approaching something spicy has been fearful caution.  It's only been through a series of accidentally eating things that are "too spicy" and then finding I'd enjoyed the experience that I've trained myself to know that I should probably plow ahead when faced with that fear.  But this story takes place very early in my capsicum-laced journey, so the fear was real and very present.

I bravely tasted a tiny little bit.  It was great!  It was spicy, but with a mild sweetness that complemented the savory garlic flavor really well. Emboldened, I gamely went to add a little bit to my soup, but accidentally squirted out way more than I'd meant to.  The broth turned red and cloudy...almost opaque.  What had I done?!?  But I steeled my nerve and tasted the soup, which turned out to be scrumptious and spicy.

And then I immediately swallowed it wrong and choked on my own hot peppered throat for a while.

Undeterred, I dove back in, drinking the searing brothy elixir.  I was hooked.  I bought a bottle of my own at my next opportunity, which was pretty shortly thereafter because there were not one, but two Asian markets in Carson City at the time.

I got so into it that at one point, I mused it might make a pretty good pasta sauce all on its own (which it really actually doesn't).

Okay, maybe not good for EVERYTHING.  But do you think I can pay for Sriracha on my FSA?

To this day, it's still my most common day-to-day hot sauce.  Eggs, pasta, soup, pizza, sandwiches, potatoes, rice, chicken, hamburgers, steak, etc., etc.  It's good on almost everything.  I've seen people put it on Mexican food, and I'm not judging, but I find its sweet garlicky taste is not ideal when combined with such fare.  That's my personal experience, though.

It's just a really excellent sauce and needs to be in your kitchen.

And did you know they've started putting it in little to-go packets like ketchup?  Why didn't this happen sooner?