This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post is about the amazing and incredible Sriracha Sauce loved the world over!
Jump to:
- What is Sriracha?
- 1,000 Foods To Eat Project
- Where Did Sriracha Come From?
- Use in Thai and Vietnamese Cuisines
- Other Suggestions For Use
- Recommended Recipe - "Salmon With Sriracha Sauce and Lime"
- Is Sriracha Sauce Hot?
- American Sriracha - Huy Fong Brand
- A Few Other Ways to Enjoy Some Sriracha 🙂
- LAST BUT NOT LEAST...TASTE TEST 🙂
- Some Other Foods In The 1,000 Foods to Eat Project!
- 1,000 Foods To Eat Project
When you see "Sriracha" written or hear it spoken, what do you normally think of? For many Americans, the bottle with the Rooster and the signature green top immediately comes to mind.
And it's definitely no surprise! The Huy Fong brand of Sriracha, also known as "Rooster Sauce," is the most well known brand of American Sriracha sauces, and is known world over. By the way, the rooster is on the bottle because it is the Chinese Zodiac symbol of Huy Fong owner, David Tran. 🙂
What is Sriracha?
Sriracha is a chili sauce comprised of the following simple ingredients:
- Chili peppers
- Vinegar
- Sugar
- Salt
- Garlic
There are many commercial brands of this delightful chili sauce, including Huy Fong (USA), Polar (Thailand), Shark Brand (Thailand), Kikkoman (USA), Sriraja Panich (Thailand) and Lee Kum Kee (USA) to name but a few.
You can also make your own sriracha sauce, although I have not done so yet! Here are a few DIY recipes for you to choose from:
How to Make Homemade Sriracha Sauce - Allrecipes
Homemade Sriracha Hot Sauce Recipe - Chili Pepper Madness
Homemade Sriracha Hot Sauce ซอสพริกศรีราชา - Hot Thai Kitchen
I can't wait to try making my own sriracha soon!!
1,000 Foods To Eat Project
I am working my way through the foods that are listed in the book 1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die by Mimi Sheraton. This is called my 1,000 Foods to Eat Project.
In this book, the author Mimi Sheraton lists her choice for the 1,000 Foods of the World that you MUST try. I think that most everyone would agree that sriracha sauce deserves a place on this list!
This awesome chili sauce is food #38 in my project!
Where Did Sriracha Come From?
Ms. Sheraton has organized her book by "the geography of flavor and culinary style." So, she lists this much loved chili sauce as both Thai and Vietnamese.
The sauce is named after a coastal town in Thailand called Sri Racha. There is a Wikipedia article, "Sriracha," which discusses the origin of the sauce, the use, and variations if you'd like to delve deeper into those items. But it seems from what I can see that there is agreement that it was developed in Thailand.
Use in Thai and Vietnamese Cuisines
From a Wikipedia article regarding use of sriracha in Vietnam: "sriracha appears as a condiment for phở and fried noodles, as a topping for spring rolls (chả giò), and in sauces."
The same Wikipedia article says about the use of sriracha in Thailand that: "In Thailand, sriracha is frequently used as a dipping sauce, particularly for seafood and omelet." The article actually has a picture of horseshoe crab served with sriracha in the town of Sri Racha. 🙂
Other Suggestions For Use
Some of my friends on Instagram commented on how they like to use this most amazing chili sauce:
- "Like it with my pho"
- "I pretty much use it like ketchup, on almost anything"
- "Try it with hoi sin sauce as a dip for meat and try mixing it with lime or lemon"
- "A favourite and I use it in a lot of marinades too. Tastes great with miso , ginger and honey"
These all sound good to me!
Truly sriracha is a very versatile sauce. You can stir it into almost almost any existing condiment, such as ketchup or mayo, and even mustard!
There are many commercial ready condiments with sriracha as well. As seen in a picture above, there is a Lee Kum Kee Sriracha Mayo, and if you click here you can see (amongst a variety of other types of mayo) loads of different varieties of Sriracha mayo on Amazon!
The 1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die book even recommends using it with the Cajun corn dish called maque choux! Basically you can use it in any way that suits your fancy!!
Recommended Recipe - "Salmon With Sriracha Sauce and Lime"
"Salmon With Sriracha Sauce and Lime" is one of Gwyneth Paltrow's go-to recipes and is in her book "IT'S ALL GOOD: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great." I'm not sure about the looking good part (as far as ME LOL) but I can vouch for the feel great part for sure!!!
I made this a few days ago and let me tell you it has THE MOST AMAZING FLAVOR! This is an awesome use for sriracha try it soon, and you can get my Delicious and Easy Egg Fried Rice recipe here to accompany it! 🙂
Is Sriracha Sauce Hot?
By all means this most popular of chili sauces has a great deal of flavor, but is it HOT?
We all have varying amounts of levels of spice that we are comfortable with, so my own personal opinion is that no, it is not hot. But let's refer to the Scoville scale. Again from Wikipedia: "The Scoville scale is a measurement of the pungency (spiciness or "heat") of chili peppers, as recorded in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is the predominant component." Basically, the lower the number on the scale, the less "hot or spicy" the pepper will be.
So where does sriracha fall?
Huy Fong Sriracha comes in at 2200 SHU on the scale. For reference, Tabasco comes in at 3750 SHU (from Srirach2Go.com). So I can safely say, relatively speaking, that at least Huy Fong's is not hot. It does have tremendous flavor though!
American Sriracha - Huy Fong Brand
For many Americans, Huy Fong Brand IS sriracha. And what an American success story this is!!
Owner David Tran, of Chinese descent, was born and raised in Vietnam. He started his chili sauce making in Vietnam in 1975. In 1979 he left Communist Vietnam on a Taiwanese freighter named "Huey Fong," which became the inspiration for the name of his company.
The United States was the only country that would accept Mr. Tran as a refugee, and when he arrived he started right away making chili sauce. He began by selling his sauces (including Chili Garlic and Sambal Oelek) to Asian restaurants and markets in his blue Chevy van in 1980. Fast forward to 2020...Huy Fong's sauces, including Sriracha, are known and loved WORLD OVER!
If you get a chance, check out the film "Sriracha" by Griffin Hammond! It is free for Amazon Prime members, and you can learn much about Mr. Tran, Huy Fong, and the cult status that his Sriracha holds!
Check out HuyFong.com for more history about the company, recipes, videos, and their shop where you can get awesome Sriracha items! As of this writing (Sept 2020), they are celebrating their 40th anniversary! Congratulations Huy Fong on 40 glorious years of amazing chili sauce!!!
A Few Other Ways to Enjoy Some Sriracha 🙂
I found these on my recent trip to my local grocery store:
Sriracha is popping up everywhere, and seems to be in everything!
Please do me a favor and comment below if you like sriracha! I'd love to know how you use it and what brand is your favorite!
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...TASTE TEST 🙂
Some Other Foods In The 1,000 Foods to Eat Project!
1,000 Foods To Eat Project
Please follow along with me on this quest to try the 1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die, from the book by Mimi Sheraton! Join me in this journey and discover new foods, experiences, and cuisines which I hope will add inspiration, fun, and joy to your life! Visit the 1,000 Foods to Eat Project page to view a list of the foods tried so far.
If you'd like to follow along and be a part of the 1,000 Foods Project, please sign up to get the latest recipes and inspiration for you to expand your food comfort zone! It's an incredible journey, please join me by signing up here.
Cheers!
Grace
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