THE RISE IN VIETNAMESE FOOD'S PROFILE









SRIRACHA'S LOUDENING BUZZ

THE TRADER JOE’S CONTROVERSY



HUY FONG -- ORIGINAL LITTLE-GUY SRIRACHA MAKER

EXPANDING THE WITCH HUNT



THE SRIRACHA TRUTH REVEALED

Wikipedia’s earliest entry for “sriracha” appeared in 2006 and began, “Sriracha is the generic name for a Southeast Asian hot sauce from Thailand, although one of the most famous brands is American. It is named after the seaside town Si Racha, where it was first produced as a local product.” Not that you should trust everything that you read on Wikipedia or anywhere else but in this case, that information is correct.

’s earliest entry for “sriracha” appeared in 2006 and began, “Sriracha is the generic name for a Southeast Asian hot sauce from Thailand, although one of the most famous brands is American. It is named after the seaside town Si Racha, where it was first produced as a local product.” Not that you should trust everything that you read on Wikipedia or anywhere else but in this case, that information is correct.

SRIRACHA'S REAL GROUND ZERO





^^

THERE CAN’T BE ONLY ONE



*Huy Fong has been the victim of counterfeit although unless something other than Huy Fong is pretending to be Huy Fong (which Vi Hao isn’t) then it’s no more counterfeit than Hunt’s ketchup is a counterfeit of Heinz or Puffs is a counterfeit of Kleenex.

*****





In the last decade or so, masses of semi-adventurous, non-Vietnamesediscovered. While many non-Vietnamesehad long known about Vietnamese food (and the rooster sauce that is ubiquitous at Southern California Vietnamese restaurants), Vietnamese food's profile skyrocketed when they it when white folks declared it the newOvernight these pasty palatal pioneers proclaimed their undying passion for(although they oddly defied Vietnamese convention by eating it primarily at lunch and supper times).InVietnamese restaurants they first encountered’s sriracha sauce and they eagerly squirted copious amounts of it directly into their soup, obliterating its flavor in the process, showing off their hipness and cluelessness in equal measure. Eventually some of these foodie types discoveredtoo, which they probably paid about eight dollars for because they waited for Vietnamese food to come toandrather than venture to its natural environs inor. Seemingly after every last Angeleno formed an opinion on cock sauce its legend traveled toandSriracha’s popularity has skyrocketed in the past few years.named sriracha “Ingredient of the Year” in 2010. In 2011,published. Illustratorcelebrated the sauce with a comic that included a predictably cod-Asian caption “Sriracha, you are a delicious blessing flavored with the incandescent glow of a thousand dying suns.” In 2012 sriracha was added to the– making rendering my use of italics unnecessary (although tellingly, spell-check is still unhappy).is currently making a documentary about it,offers a "creamy" version of it, it’s been mentioned on, andintroduced it as a flavor of potato chip. There are sriracha smartphone cases, greeting cards, lip balms, air fresheners, and women’s shoes graced with its image. The bandwagon includes sriracha-inspired memes,costumes, web comics, and regrettable tattoos.Like the latest, insurance-shilling, “whoa whoa” singing band of guys in V-necks, Huy Fong has managed to retain hipster cred despite at this point being utterly and completely mainstream -- an American version of a Asian condiment -- analogous toin the world of soy sauce. I have heard pretentious sorts who, dismayed by the sauce's ubiquity, actually proclaim (tongue-not-apparently-in-cheek) that they "liked sriracha before it was cool." When Hammond's documentary hits, someone will try to impress older views by commenting that even though they’re only 11 or 12, they like sriracha too (and invariably add that, presumably unlike their peers, they have no use for Justin Bieber ). Food writers will scamper to discover "the next sriracha."Everything was fine and dandy for most sriracha supports untilunveiled a hot sauce they dared to call “sriracha.”commenters were particularly aghast. “At least come up with a different name, this is just a shameless imitation,” shrieked one reader. “The original little-guy Sriracha maker is gonna get screwed,” wailed another. Others cried “Accept no substitutes, there is only one original!,” and “Huy Fong forever!!” Generally there was a lot of"wailing and gnashing of teeth that one ypically associates withBy now the story ofis well known and oft-repeated. It was founded by, aimmigrant who came toaboard a ship called the Huy Fong. Back in, Tran began making sauces in 1975 whose bottles he decorated with the image of a rooster – his astrological sign. After relocating toin, he began making his now familiar rooster sauce in. He perfected the recipe in 1983 and soon it appeared on nearly every Vietnamese table in the (South)land. To meet the growing demand he expanded and relocated operations toin 1987. After non-Vietnamese began to getting addicted to it, Huy Fong moved to an even larger facility in-like municipality ofHuy Fong has been celebrated by many food writers since.’swrote “we AbFob girls love the Vietnamese hot sauce.”’sincorrectly wrote that "Siracha was created by 66-year-old David Tran.” A writer atwrote “Huy Fong’s is the O.G. of Sriracha sauces.” OC Weekly’s Michelle Woo even referred to Huf Fong’s factory as “Sriracha ground zero,” and has called Trader Joe’s and other companies' srirachas “imposters.”Soon vigilant inquisitors discovered even more brands of sauce masquerading as “sriracha.” Food writersandcalled Vietnamese company’s version (with a unicorn on the label, blue instead of green cap, and the words “Vi Hao” clearly printed on the container "counterfeit” and warned readers to be vigilant of others.*I mention these writers' names to show that none are apparently. So what, right? As another teeth-gnasher screamed "Sriachi [sic] is VOTENAMESE [sic] not Thai. Sheesh." The problem is that, in addition to none of the above being Thai, none are correct. Apparently none bothered to do much research on the subject of their passions either.Years ago my neighbors thetold me that sriracha was a Thai sauce and not Vietnamese (or Vietnamese-American). I had my doubts. I'd never seen sriracha at any Thai restaurant and the bottle says right there in Vietnamese, “.” I reviewed my limited knowledge of the Vietnamese and Thai languages. “Sriracha” sounds nothing like any Vietnamese word in my limited vocabulary (which is about the equivalent of that of a slightly slow Vietnamese two-year-old) and does sound rather a lot like Thai (though my Thai vocabulary consists of little more than numbers, pronouns and a few key words like "spicy" and "ladyboy"). Knowing that not everything appropriated by Vietnamese culture is Vietnamese in origin (e.g.and), I was without much difficulty able to overcome my cognitive dissonance.It seems somewhat likely that no one person can truthfully claim to have single-handedly invented sriracha any more than anyone could, say, do the same with ketchup (which, interestingly, also emerged from).), is a town in’s. If any one person can claim legitimately claim to have invented it, it’s probably, who began selling herover 80 years ago. It was mostly used as a dipping sauce for seafood (in other words, she probably didn’t squirt it into phở). Sriraja Panich is still manufactured today, although it was acquired by a larger company (-- makers of also great Golden Mountain sauce ) in 1984.Since there are few things in this word better than Thai food, I began seeking out more varieties of Thai srirachas. In general I find that Thai srirachas tend to be sweeter, tangier, often hotter, and generally have a more complex flavor profile than Huy Fong’s Americanized version (which Tran, it should be noted, has never claimed to be the original sriracha -- unlike most of those who write about him). There are numerous other brands made in, Vietnam and of course, Thailand. Other popular Thai brands include, and. In Los Angeles, Thai markets likeinorin(orwhich has locations in, and) carry other varieties – in addition to Huy Fong.Huy Fong will likely remain synonymous with sriracha in the way, andare with their associated products. It's actually a fine sauce, I reckon, and I probably wouldn't have bothered to write this post if I didn't think that hot sauce fans could benefit from more varieties in their lives (and if so many of the writers and commenters weren't -- in addition to being wrong -- so damned shrill and sanctimonious!)Branch out, make your own, and get your facts straight before leaving comments -- especially misspelled, mis-informed, and in all-caps. Better yet, don't comment. And for heaven’s sake don’t limit your hot sauce stock to just sriracha. As the saying goes, “no man can live on sriracha alone!” Try some Tapatio, freak out on some Frank's, jump on Jufran and for God's sake don't get tattoos of fleetingly faddish condiments.