Sriracha Food Fight: Trader Joe’s vs. Huy Fong Foods 

Tien Nguyen at the LA Weekly offers this helpful Venn Diagram comparing Trader Joe’s Sriracha—one of their newest private-label creations—with the almighty rooster sauce we all know and love from Huy Fong Foods.

Nguyen explains:

“Trader Joe’s version is tasty, though it smacks of garlic first and chilies second. Indeed, the heat level here is fairly tame; it was quite a bit easier to down a few spoonfuls of this than to take in a similar amount of Huy Fong’s sauce. Higher up on the Scoville scale, the Rooster sauce has has a dry heat and a sharp, appealing tang that lingers.”

While the folks at the Weekly ultimately chose Huy Fong Foods’ Sriracha as their favorite, I have to say that I love them both. I know, I know… I’m a fence-sitter, but here’s why. Huy Fong Foods’ version is incredible. I fell in love with it 15 years ago and I still love it today. When I started working on The Sriracha Cookbook and The Veggie-Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook, I began learning about the Thai versions of Sriracha and how different they were from our homegrown American interpretation. Sweeter, a little more focus on the garlic than the peppers, and a thinner consistency, almost like a dipping sauce rather than a squirting condiment. (Shark Brand and Sriraja Panich are highly recommended for those looking to try some of the authentic Thai Sriracha sauces.) Annnnyway, back to Trader Joe’s. Why do I love it? Because it’s like the best of both worlds! It’s got some of the punch of Huy Fong Foods with some of the aforementioned characteristics of its original Thai counterparts.

For me, I’ll be keeping ‘em all stocked in my cupboard… it’s always fun to play “Sriracha Sommelier” when friends come over for dinner.

Recipe: Kimchi Omelet with Sriracha Syrup 

Brooklyn’s 606 R&D restaurant just got their phenomenal sounding breakfast recipe shared by The New York Times. It sounds so good, I just might have to have it for dinner tonight!

“The premise is simple: you sauté chopped store-bought kimchi in a pan, then add beaten eggs. What elevates this from your standard brunch is the sriracha syrup, made from simmered rice vinegar and sugar spiked with thick red hot sriracha chili sauce[.]”

Full recipe and method:
Kimchi Omelet With Sriracha Syrup - NYTimes.com

latimes:

The story behind Sriracha

With a distinctive bottle and taste, Sriracha has gone from an unpronounceable challenge to a staple sauce for many Americans. In the U.S. alone, $60 million worth of the sauce was sold last year alone.

But it wasn’t always such a prevalent item on store shelves. David Tran, the man responsible for popularizing the hot sauce, had a long journey beforehand:

When North Vietnam’s communists took power in South Vietnam, Tran, a major in the South Vietnamese army, fled with his family to the U.S. After settling in Los Angeles, Tran couldn’t find a job — or a hot sauce to his liking.

So he made his own by hand in a bucket, bottled it and drove it to customers in a van. He named his company Huy Fong Foods after the Taiwanese freighter that carried him out of Vietnam.

Read more via our profile of Tran, and his beloved hot sauce.

Photos: Gina Ferazzi, Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Recipe: Glazed Tofu with Fiery Sriracha Pearls 

If you’re not already checking out the divine vegan recipes and stunning photography on the Olives for Dinner blog, might I recommend you do so ASAP?

The latest and greatest is this Glazed Tofu with Sriracha Pearls recipe, made even cooler thanks to the molecular gastronomy fun you get to have with some simple spherification techniques! And yes, it’s all vegetarian- and vegan-friendly! Hooray!

As the blogess doth profess on her site:

“Here I’ve created sriracha pearls, which were then dropped into a viscous and sweet glaze over well-seared tofu cubes. Instead of producing an even heat level throughout, these pearls created tiny yet fiery pops of isolated heat in each bite.”

Sounds like a winner to me! 

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Olives for Dinner | Vegan Recipes and Photography: Glazed Tofu with Fiery Sriracha Pearls

Photo by Jeff Wysocarski; hat tip to Kristy from Keepin’ It Kind for sending me the link!

Sriracha Caramel Corn recipe

Jackie Dodd over at Domestic Fits is awesome. Besides making some stellar recipes for that blog, she also runs another blog called The Beeroness that holds a veritable treasure of delicious recipes that incorporate craft beer.

She’s wowed us before with her Sriracha-Stout BBQ Sauce recipe and her Strawberry-Sriracha Margarita recipe, but now she’s come back even stronger with her rooster sauce-infused sweet & spicy caramel corn.

You know the old movie theater trick… a guy drilling a hole in the bottom of the popcorn box to get himself a good time? (Did anyone ever actually do this?) Well, I’m sure there’s some kind of cock sauce joke I can make here, but I’m writing this way too early in the morning to be that clever. Enjoy your popcorn!

Recipe: Sriracha Caramel Corn from Domestic Fits

Photograph by Jackie Dodd