Do you love sriracha sauce?

[Jenise]

If so, let's talk about your uses for it.

It's a pantry staple at our house. I discovered it when eating in a Vietnamese restaurant years ago. It didn't actually appeal to me at first bite, I'll have to admit, but there was something about it I just had to keep sampling at, and by the end of the meal I was hooked.

According to an article in today's New York Times, I have a lot of company. Like Jean-Georges Vongerichten. And major restaurant chains like PF Changs and even Applebee's now use it to creat dipping sauces. The article describes the origins of the sauce, which is interesting--Huy Fong founder David Tran came to America with the Vietnamese evacuation of Saigon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html

We tend to use it straight, squirting it onto a plate and swiping food in it the way one would ketchup. I sometimes make a dual-dip of sriricha on the one side and Chinese mustard on the other (not mixed, just served in the same small vessel for dipping for oven-fried versions of fried shrimp. Sometimes it has to be tamed with ketchup because my darling husband doesn't have my tolerance for fire.

Occasionally, I also dilute it somewhat with water or chicken broth to make a marinade for chicken wings which are then baked or grilled. Those become an appetizer, or an Asian hot wings dinner for two served with a finger food salad of bell pepper strips and batons of daikon radish lightly pickled with garlic, ginger and vinegar. Or cold, salted cucumber slices.

We also use it as a condiment for cold meat and sprigs of fresh herbs (thai basil, cilantro and mint) wrapped in blankets of rice noodle vermicelli, a fresh pasta product I buy and bring home from Southern California. It's a great summer meal, especially served with a good German riesling.

Totally new to me, Jenise -- I'll try to find some.

In fact, I've just started to drink tea with hot peppers sprinkled in. I'm amazed to discover a tolerance for heat, which seems to raise my metabolism and reduce my appetite when drunk in tea.

Maybe I sould avoid sriracha? Sounds like it makes food awfully enticing.

Jenise, I don't have much experience with it, other than at PFChang. I don't cook much Asian food around here. Len only rarely feels like those flavors. However, it sounds as though it has many more applications than I would have originally thought. Also, judging from how many times the chefs on the show "Chopped!" reach for it. (My goodness!) I may have to add it to our pantry.

I have been using it since I was in college. For the most part, I use it wherever I would use hot sauce. Where some people would add Tabasco I add Sriracha. The strangest thing I ever used it on was a Reuben sandwich. It actually worked quite well with the sauerkraut. It's great in soups and stews.

I just noticed your enclosed link is to another story.

I use Sriracha sauce mostly to jazz up SE Asian noodle dishes. I find that it's a bit too loud for addition to a lot of other cooking, and the flavor profile doesn't work for me in other foods, such as Mexican dishes. It's good on eggs, too, though.

Mark Lipton

I like it, but don't buy any or use it. For cooking or making dips I prefer the Lee Kum Kee Guilin chili sauce (which is seriously hot, but I love the flavour and power and it's amazing for meat marinades).

I have it and use it when called for...I find it a bit strong with vinegar. I use different hot sauces with my favorite breakfast drink every morning, so I will try again to see how it works in that.

Just used it today at lunch, I keep a bottle here at work. Our cafeteria offering was their take on Katsu using breaded pork cutlet (interesting aside, to me at least, was that when I asked the chef about the sauce he mentioned that the sauce contained saki, which I found interesting in a corporate lunch recipe). Anyway, sriracha worked tremendously with the rice side dish. Another side dish they serve fairly regularly is roasted veggies and I find it jazzes those up nicely as well. At home I find I use it most in broth based soups.

My introduction to it was with pizza, and I still enjoy that flavor combination.

It's a staple.

I love it and have been using it for years. One way I use it most peeps will probably thing strange, is on a dill pickle that's been heated in the microwave. Well LOL, it appeals to me!

I tried it today at lunch, and did not get the vinegar taste I thought if had, but it is very hot. I prefer the flavors of my other hot sauces over Sriracha. I like the heat of Tabasco and Cholula. I just finished up a jar of Tabasco Chipotle Smoked Pepper Sauce and loved it. Emeril's Kick it Up Sauce is a favoite, for the flavor.

Oh god... Tabasco Chipotle sauce is like liquid crack. Love it.

Oh god... Tabasco Chipotle sauce is like liquid crack. Love it.

Yeah, me too. Great chipotle flavor and a nice, moderate amount of heat.

I like it too, but haven't bought any in years. I keep going for Cholulas and Melinda's XXX Habanero sauce instead.

Jenise,

Thanks for revising the link in your original post so we could read the correct story. It is very interesting.

Jenise,

Thanks for revising the link in your original post so we could read the correct story. It is very interesting.

Dave, I just noticed you made it past 1000 postings on WLDG. Are you going to change your descriptor?

Oh god... Tabasco Chipotle sauce is like liquid crack. Love it.

Well, I wouldn't know about the liquid crack, but what I do know is that the flavor is wonderful and the heat is just perfect. I use a product called Knudsen's Very Veggie Juice. It is tomato based. Every morning I drink a glass with fresh lemon and my current favorite hot sauce, Tabasco Chipotle. It is a darn near perfect breakfast drink.

[Jenise]

I have it and use it when called for...I find it a bit strong with vinegar. I use different hot sauces with my favorite breakfast drink every morning, so I will try again to see how it works in that.

Why not try substituting sriracha for Tabasco in that marinated chicken you do?

[Jenise]

I love it and have been using it for years. One way I use it most peeps will probably thing strange, is on a dill pickle that's been heated in the microwave. Well LOL, it appeals to me!

That's one of the most idiosyncratic snacks I've ever heard of. Makes me smile!

[Jenise]

Jenise,

Thanks for revising the link in your original post so we could read the correct story. It is very interesting.

And thanks for pointing out the problem!

[Robin Garr]

I love it! Discovered it fairly early - we got a lot of Vietnamese refugees here in the '70s and have had a few good Vietnamese restaurants since then - and I always keep a big bottle in the fridge for use as standard hot sauce. I use it often, but the big bottle seems to last forever.

It's one of my favorite hot sauces, but for Asian cooking, I have a slight preference for sambal oelek and chili garlic sauce, both of which are available at Asian markets here from Huy Fong Foods, the same Los Angeles-based company that makes Sriracha sauce. To me, those two have a "cleaner" hot-chile taste lacking the vinegariness that others have mentioned in Sriracha.

(Interestingly, I just checked the ingredients list and all list vinegar as an ingredient, but following behind chile and salt and, in the case of the chili-garlic sauce, garlic. But here's a surprise (dunno if this was in the NYT story, I only read the part on the front page yesterday): a major ingredient in Sriracha is sugar!

[Jenise]

(Interestingly, I just checked the ingredients list and all list vinegar as an ingredient, but following behind chile and salt and, in the case of the chili-garlic sauce, garlic. But here's a surprise (dunno if this was in the NYT story, I only read the part on the front page yesterday): a major ingredient in Sriracha is sugar!

Oh yeah, it's slightly sweet, and though I love that about it it's also why Sriracha would not, could not be my only hot sauce. It doesn't work on tacos!

I have it and use it when called for...I find it a bit strong with vinegar. I use different hot sauces with my favorite breakfast drink every morning, so I will try again to see how it works in that.

Why not try substituting sriracha for Tabasco in that marinated chicken you do?

Do you mean that fried chicken I make, that I marinate in buttermilk and Tabasco first? That Sriracha sauce is so hot, I'd have to be careful how much I use. I never fry chicken anymore since I prefer to use a product called, "Oven Fry". I still marinate it the same way.

[Jenise]

I have it and use it when called for...I find it a bit strong with vinegar. I use different hot sauces with my favorite breakfast drink every morning, so I will try again to see how it works in that.

Why not try substituting sriracha for Tabasco in that marinated chicken you do?

Do you mean that fried chicken I make, that I marinate in buttermilk and Tabasco first? That Sriracha sauce is so hot, I'd have to be careful how much I use. I never fry chicken anymore since I prefer to use a product called, "Oven Fry". I still marinate it the same way.

Yes, that one.

I never fry chicken on the stovetop either, but marinate in either a flavored buttermilk or dijon mustard-based goo and then drop into a 50/50 blend of corn meal and AP flour. Bakes beautifully crisp and perfect every time--probably couldn't fool Joe Carey, but most would never guess it never saw a frying pan.