Andrea Nguyen
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Into the Vietnamese Kitchen
Available at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooksRecent PostsSpiced Siamese Peanuts RecipeMaggi Masala Chilli Sauce: An Indian Sriracha?Tackling Sriracha Myths, Truths and ConfusionRed Wine and Beef Stew in Claypot (A Franco-Viet Experiment)October 2011 Food Finds: Young ginger, pho novel, Sriracha film projectCrunchy Shrimp Balls Recipe (aka Chef's Special Balls)Banh Mi Mayonnaise Recipe for Burgers? Pork Blood Pho: Is it True or New?Asian Tofu Update: Jacket Blurbs & Early ReviewsRuhlman’s Twenty Leads to Kaffir Lime Fried Chicken RecipeAwards + Praise
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« Red Wine and Beef Stew in Claypot (A Franco-Viet Experiment) |Main| Maggi Masala Chilli Sauce: An Indian Sriracha? »
November 07, 2011Tackling Sriracha Myths, Truths and Confusion
A couple of incidents last week led me to realize that there may be much misunderstanding about Sriracha chile sauce. The first occurred on the October 2011 Food Finds post. Upon checking out Jess Dang’s pitch for a Sriracha documentary film project, @Chrisjone commented that Jess had incorrectly described Sri Racha as an island. It’s a town with seaport. There’s an island nearby. I notified Jess of the error and she promptly corrected it.
The second incident was related to the 2011 CHOW 13 Award listing of influential food people. Coming in at lucky number 8 was David Tran of Huy Fong Foods, the maker of the Rooster brand of Sriracha. I’m quoted as saying that many people don’t know whether or not the Rooster brand’s version of Sriracha is Thai or Vietnamese. It’s kinda messed up and mixed up, I told writer John Birdsall.
Case in point, I’m often asked about Sriracha even though it’s not a traditional Viet staple. In The Sriracha Cookbook, Randy Clemens's introduction describes the hot sauce as an beloved condiment at Asian markets, upscale restaurants, and even Wal-Mart. Clemens follows up with the Thai backstory in a separate chapter but he opens up the book by framing the "Rooster sauce" as a “mainstay in many home kitchens and innumerable college dorm rooms.” This coming Sunday, Sriracha will be part of a Simpson's foodie episode!
After reading the CHOW entry on Tran, Pim Techamuanvivit texted me, “Sriracha sauce is definitely Thai.” Of course, Pim and I know that because we’ve talked a lot about the hot sauce. I’ve had her over for a Sriracha taste-off between Vietnamese, Viet-American, and Thai brands. But not everyone is as lucky as I am to have a Bangkok-born friend who’s also a persnickety food expert.
That said, I’m throwing out some points here about Sriracha for your consideration and comments:
SRIRACHA MYTHS
Sriracha is a Vietnamese hot sauce. You can claim this to the extent that you’re talking about the rendition produced by David Tran, a Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant to the United States. His company, Huy Fong Foods, produces three Southeast Asian-style chiles sauces: chile garlic sauce (tuong ot toi) for Vietnam, sambal oelek for Indonesia, Sriracha for Thailand. He succeeded with Sriracha after placing it at most (if not all) pho restaurants in the US.
On the bottle in Vietnamese, the company suggests its Sriracha for Chinese egg noodles, pho, and meat dishes. English, French, and Spanish readers should use it for soup, sauces (salsas), hot dogs, pizza, hamburgers, chow mein and pasta. So while the sauce may have been an initial hit with pho, it's marketed to a much broader audience.
The rooster logo on all Huy Fong Food products is Tran’s Chinese astrology sign. Tran is shy about granting interviews. One of the best profiles on Tran and his company was written by David Chute for the April 2001 issue of Los Angeles magazine. Read his article called “Fire in the Bowl”:
Sriracha is integral to pho noodle soup. No, it’s not. My opinion is that it can obliterate a well-balanced, well-crafted bowl of pho. Go to Hanoi and you won’t find Sriracha on the table at the pho joints or stalls. Sriracha is popular at Vietnamese-American pho restaurants. I only use it with pho when it the noodle soup contains beef meatballs: Sriracha and hoisin sauce make a good dipping sauce for the bo vien meatballs.
Rooster brand’s Sriracha is definitive. Unfortunately, Huy Fong Foods’ claim on Sriracha is not the same as the McIlhenny Company’s exclusive registered trademark for TABASCO. The Rooster brand of Sriracha is ubiquitous in the United States but it’s not the only rendition. At the top of this page is a Thai bottle of Sriracha Panich next to the Rooster brand’s. Pim brought the Thai bottle back from overseas and gifted it to me. It’s the original version, she emphasized. With a little Googling, you’ll see that some people say that Sriracha Panich is the real Sriracha. The medium-hot offers a nice balance of sweet-spiciness.
At James Syhabout’s Hawker Fare in Oakland, California, the Sriracha on the table is imported from Thailand:
According to a Hawker Fare staff member I spoke to last week, they like it more than the Rooster brand’s. What they offer at the restaurant was specially selected by Syhabout and not readily available in the U.S. (I hope someone can fix that because it’s really good stuff.)
TRUTHS
Sriracha originated in Thailand. The fact that the bottle Pim gave me has no Vietnamese or Chinese on it underscores the chile sauce’s Thai birthplace. On the flip side, there is no Thai script on a bottle of the Rooster’s version of Sriracha. There’s English, Chinse, French, Spanish, and Vietnamese printed on the bottle. None of the text claims any particular ethnicity or cuisine.
Sriracha and Sri Racha. Both are acceptable spellings. In English, the one-word spelling of Sriracha generally denotes the hot chile sauce. Sri Racha as two words is often used to refer to the place in Chonburi Province in central Thailand where the sauce came from. Anyone have extra insights on this?
The Rooster brand of Sriracha tells a wonderfully complex story of America. I can think of few other places on this planet where a Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant succeeds in turning a popular Thai hot sauce into a must-have for an iconic Viet noodle soup and a go-to ingredient for foodie heat seekers of various stripes and colors.
Indeed, traditional borders break down and blur in the world of Huy Fong Foods’ Sriracha. Asian ingredients and bold flavors are popular in the States nowadays. I’m hoping that after people fall in love with the Rooster brand of Sriracha that they delve a little deeper to broaden their palates even further. The Asian food landscape is huge and full of tasty things to try.
What’s your impression of Sriracha? Did you know or care about its origin? Do you like Sriracha chile sauce? If yes, how do you use it? What brands of Sriracha do you like?
Related posts:
Maggi Masala Chilli Sauce: An Indian Sriracha?Sriracha Taste-Off (learn about different kinds)Homemade Sriracha Chile SauceHomemade Chile Garlic SauceSriracha Cabbage SlawSriracha and Crab RangoonPosted in Asian Ingredients, Asian Markets, Recipes: Chile Sauce, Viet Food in Media | Permalink | | Comments
I like the "Shark" brand. It's not called "Shark" as far as I can tell, but it's a Thai brand that has a shark on the label. You can find it at various markets around the SF Bay Area, but not at 99 Ranch I don't think - you have to search out smaller places. It's lighter and more flavorful than the rooster sauce stuff and has fewer additives. Of course, I do like the rooster stuff too!
Posted by:Diane |November 07, 2011 at 03:26 PMI enjoyed reading about Sriracha in your post. I enjoy the Rooster Sauce, and have tried about 6 or 7 different types, but my favorite is the Sriracha sauce made by Badia. (Badia Spices out of Florida) I came across it a couple of months ago, and the flavor is wonderful. It took awhile for me to find it in South Carolina, had to get a grocery store to order it for me, and bought all six bottles that came in.
I don't get why people gotta squirt loads of Rooster sauce in their pho. That's kinda like loading up on the wasabi in soy sauce at a sushi restaurant. I, like you, just prefer to mix it with hoisin as a dipping sauce on the side for beef.
Posted by:Nate @ House of Annie |November 07, 2011 at 09:12 PMDiane: Where'd you find Shark brand in NorCal? For sure it's not at 99 Ranch. I've seen it at certain Lions markets. Mostly, I truck it back from SoCal. :)
Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |November 07, 2011 at 10:11 PM@Berkeley_Grier: I've never seen Badia before. Thanks for the tip. I just found it on Amazon...
There's a company in the South that's producing an organic version. I saw it at Whole Foods for about $5.99. Alas, I'm full up on Sriracha at the moment.
Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |November 07, 2011 at 10:14 PM@Nate: I've noticed some pho diners doing the dip with their beef like you.... It's so much better than squirting the stuff right into the bowl.
Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |November 07, 2011 at 10:16 PM
I've not tried any but Rooster brand, and love the stuff. When our kids were little, they all used to ask for the rooster ketchup to put on their food, which always amazed our dinner guests how our little ones loved hot hot food.
Now that I know there are other brands, I'll have to scout around and find them!
Posted by:biki honko |November 08, 2011 at 12:47 AM
To a non-Asian like me, Huy Fong is the greatest. I found that there are several varieties of Sriracha, namely from Flying Goose, but to my knowledge they are nearly impossible to get in the US. Why is this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flying_goose_sriracha_th.jpg
See the different flavors? Ginger, Garlic, Sour, Galanga, Onion, etc. YUM!
Posted by:Frank Furter |November 08, 2011 at 05:41 AMHmmm...trying to remember where I found Shark. It's kind of hit and miss - when I see it, I grab it. I think I found it at Sun Hop Fat on 12th St. in Oakland. I think perhaps it's also at Sontapheap on 14th in Oakland. The smaller mom & pop East Asian places sometimes have it.
Posted by:Diane |November 08, 2011 at 07:18 AM
I knew your disclaimers, but we love the stuff regardless. My daughter-in-law complained this weekend cause my son puts in on "everything". but we are SE Louisianians who like hot sauce.
Posted by:Pamela Folse |November 08, 2011 at 07:06 PM
It’s not a bad way to stay in touch with the burgeoning comic scene. One of the Retreat’s goals, says Lisa Leingang, SVP, Original Programming & Development for Comedy Central, is to keep tabs on “the ever-changing world of NY comedy, by simply presenting the community with an opportunity to get on stage.”
Frank: I've never seen Flying Goose and will keep an eye out for it. I like the multicolored caps.
Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |November 08, 2011 at 10:17 PMDiane: I need to get to Sontaheap on 14th. Try the stuff from Hawker Fare, since you're in the neighborhood. It's nice, though not as sweet as Shark.
Pamela: You folks down in SE LA do like it hot!
Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |November 08, 2011 at 10:19 PMI just see the sausage like that and wondering how it taste if put that sausage on pizza.
Posted by:pizza hut coupons |November 09, 2011 at 12:46 AM
I agree about pho. My husband (the Vietnamese one in our relationship) was surprised the other weekend that I wasn't loading my pho up with sriracha (being the more spice-loving one), but I agree that it totally takes over and that's all you can taste--I much prefer it on the side for dipping my bo vien.
Although I do think the Huy Fong is excellent, I was unfortunately really turned off it by a profile I read of David Tran (I think it was NY Times? It was a while ago) in which he seemed to repeatedly emphasize the sauce was for Asians, for Asians, for Asians, as if he wasn't interested in others buying it. If that's how he feels, quite frankly, I'll oblige.
Posted by:M Tran |November 09, 2011 at 09:24 AMDon't you all wish that spam comments were more original?
Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |November 09, 2011 at 03:27 PMM. Tran: Thanks for weighing in and sharing!
The NYT article you're referring to is this one by John T. Edge:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html
Yes, David Tran and his family gear their sauce for the Asian community. Here's the last sentence in the story:
“We’re happy to see these chefs use our sriracha,” said Huy Fong’s president, William Tran, the 33-year-old son of its founder. “But we still sell 80 percent of our product to Asian companies, for distribution through Asian channels. That’s the market we know. That’s the market we want to serve.”
Earlier in the piece are these statements
“I made this sauce for the Asian community,” Mr. Tran said...
“I know it’s not a Thai sriracha,” Mr. Tran said. “It’s my sriracha.”
Go ahead and look to other hot sauces, sister!
Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |November 09, 2011 at 03:39 PM
I use both Rooster and the Thai one you pictured. My MIL introduced me to the Thai one and I find it quite yummy!
Posted by:Suzette |November 09, 2011 at 06:52 PM
Howie Fischer made the point on Horizon last Friday that the bid process was so badly handled that it looked like it was more than an open meeting law violation and rose to the level of bid rigging. All this to pick a Democratic mapping firm. Does that meet a duty of upholding public confidence and impartiality?
We finally scored a bottle of the Shark brand sauce at Lion market. It is more complex, and with less heat. Glad you told us to give it a try.
Posted by:Carolyn Jung |November 10, 2011 at 08:59 PMYou have got to stop apologizing for saying the Rooster sauce is not from Thailand because it's not. It's American. And there's no such thing as a Sriracha sauce; There's only chili sauce from Sriracha. If you look at the bottles of chili sauce from Thailand, they never say Sriracha sauce. They only say chili sauce. The only chili sauce bottles from thailand that says Sriracha sauce are the copycats of the Rooster sauce. Thailand is not the only country that make sweet chili sauce.
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