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Hip Sriracha hot sauce has been quite the taste maker among foodies for a few years now, but the spicy Thai treat, also known as Rooster Sauce, is surprisingly still not on some consumers radar. Even if you don’t typically favor fiery food, here are three reasons you might want to cock-a-doodle-do this haute sauce.
Entrepreneurs will want to give props to Huy Fong Foods‘ bold bootstrap spirit, since the now-successful manufacturer was an original sort of start-up. According to Wikipedia, Sriracha’s parent company began in Chinatown here in L.A. during the eighties, with only fifty thousand dollars. The immigrant family pulled together and came up with the necessary capital from their own savings, after being turned down for a bank loan four times that amount. This crafty company doesn’t advertise either, and instead relies on its recognizable and quirky brand image and word of mouth. The randy rooster logo is supposedly a nod to Chinese-Vietnamese founder and former chili pepper farmer David Tran being born in the Year of the Rooster on the Chinese zodiac.
Purists will appreciate that the piquant paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt, is all natural. That’s right, the popular potent condiment contains no artificial ingredients. Huy Fong Foods’ killer chili sauce is made from their own fresh red jalapeño chili peppers, grown on the company’s land San Diego and manufactured at its facilities in Rosemead, California. Sriracha’s trademark neon green cap on each bottle is meant to be symbolic of the freshness of the veggies.
The versatility of the topping is unstoppable. With no fat and only five calories (yes, single digit calories) per teaspoon, Sriracha seriously remedies dull day-to-day dining. Not relegated to only Pacific-hub grub, recent trends have found the audacious sauce adorning and transforming some of the most ordinary fare like potato chips, popcorn, and even a savory and spicy oatmeal. For the vegetarian set in particular, it’s a light lifesaver that marinades tofu, upgrades salads, and even enhances raw veggies. How does the Rooster Sauce boost meals in your kitchen? Share your hot Sriracha secrets in the comments, below. —Casandra Armour
For more sinful Sriracha recipes, check out “The Sriracha Cookbook” author Randy Clemens’ blog at blog.thesrirachacookbook.com.
