Sriracha - how I rediscovered I am not cool

I have noticed now and then in recipes a reference to sriracha. I had no idea what it was. And then this week I noticed in Aldi a spice grinder with sriracha written on the front - I didn't look closely and cannot find any reference to it on the net, but I think it must be a flavoured salt.

Anyway it was sufficient to pique my interest and I looked into it, only to find how very uncool I am. This is apparently a very hot sauce - in every sense of the word. People blog about it - well I suppose I am too. Very, very big in the US where, in fact it is manufactured - and I can't tell you how much debate there is about whether you should get this - the original shown above - or the various imitations that now abound. They even made a documentary on it.

It originated in Thailand, but its commercial production began in Los Angeles where a Vietnamese immigrant, named David Tran, missed it so much he decided to make it. The name of his company - Huy Fong - is the name of the ship on which he travelled to the US. It's another rags to riches immigrant story. Recently his factory was nearly closed down because the neighbours complained of noxious fumes from the factory. He has since moved it to Texas I believe.

The basic ingredients are chilli, vinegar, garlic, salt and sugar. I assume the quantities of each are the vital part - and also the quality of the chillies - which I believe are jalapeños.

Yotam Ottolenghi loves it so much he sells it on his website and he has one recipe there that uses it. And coincidentally - it's for a sandwich. Jamie Oliver, bless him, has a recipe for making it yourself. And even McDonalds has it on one of its hamburgers.

I obviously don't move in the right circles for what has been described as the hipster sauce of the day. I always knew I was just a suburbanite. But with a husband who doesn't like chilli I guess I'm not going to be trying this out very soon.

POSTSCRIPT

I checked and they do not have this in Woolworths. But they do in Coles.