Sriracha Hot Sauce Week

Perhaps because we’re closing on winter’s end and longing to warm up in spring but it seems like everyone is talking about sriracha these days. I’ve written lots about it on VWK, with tastings of various kinds, a DIY sriracha recipe, as well as recipes using the Thai hot sauce. But it continues to gain momentum, particularly the Rooster brand made by Huy Fong in the United States. Dare I say it, yes I will, sriracha has gone mainstream.

BusinessWeek magazine ran a terrific in-depth article late last month on the remarkable success of the Rooster sriracha. The company uses no advertising, has no Twitter handle or Facebook page. The owner is Vietnamese-American David Tran. While I was happy to see an Asian-American food business article in a national publication, I noted that the sriracha was compared to other hot sauces, such as Tabasco and Cholula. Why wasn’t it compared to other kinds of Thai sriracha hot sauces? That would have been a more level playing field.

I’ve had sriracha on my mind because I’d been savoring Thai-made Sriraja Panich, prepared from the original recipe. It’s fabulously good and interesting tasting, as I mentioned in an article on sriracha myths, truths, and confusion. When the US distributor read the VWK post, it sent me a few bottles. I didn’t know that Sriraja Panich was sold Stateside. Aside from getting the Thai hot sauce, I got to query the distributor about sriracha (pronounced "see-rah-shah" per my Thai friend Pim, who corrected the distributor's "see-rah-jah"; in the end, Thai native and linguist Leela noted that "see-rah-chah" works best.).

If you mail sriracha, treat it like fine wine. Be careful!

Bon Appetit (BA) magazine’s website is doing a major focus on Sriracha and Asian hot sauces this week. My piece on the original sriracha was published today as part of the kick-off. BA also did a follow-up on their popular article on 25 ways to use sriracha with 25 NEW ideas for using sriracha.

Take a read of the original Sriraja Panich article on Bon Appetit's site for some interesting bits of knowledge on the origin of sriracha, how Thais eat and use it, and why it has taken so long for the original Thai version to be well known in the United States. If you’re business-minded, the BusinessWeek story is illuminating and fascinating.

"Tower of Sriracha" at Bed, Bath & Beyond by F. Ball. He sent it after reading this post.

If you just want to cook or explore sriracha, check these posts out:

• Help with 3 Indonesian Hot Sauces
• Sriracha Taste-Off: Vietnam vs. Thailand
• Preservatives in Rooster Sauce
• Tackling Sriracha Myths, Truths, and Confusion
• Homemade Sriracha Chile Sauce recipe
• Sriracha cabbage slaw
• Sriracha crab rangoon
• Deviled crab rangoon
• Grilled okra and sriracha

What’s your favorite way to use sriracha? Please don’t say that squirt it directly into a bowl of pho... ;-)