Sriracha sauce is a hot sauce product by Huy Fong Foods and it’s something that’s commonly stock in Vietnamese restaurants in the US as a staple condiment to pho. Up till now I’m still not used to eating pho outside the US without dipping the beef slices into a Sriracha + Hoisin sauce combi-condiment; I feel like there’s something critically missing to my pho experience.
Created by Chinese-Vietnamese founder David Tran, it is a brand of Sriracha sauce and has achieved great popularity in the United States. It is also known as rooster sauce or cock sauce because of the rooster featured on its label. It has grown so much in popularity that there are now cookbooks featuring recipes that use it as their main condiment.
The genesis of the sauce’s popularity in the United States is straight out of the immigrant-success-story textbook. David Tran came to the U.S. from Vietnam, eventually landing in Los Angeles in 1980. He couldn’t find a chili sauce that he liked, so he decided to make his own, which he sold out of the back of his van. As his following grew, he moved into a processing facility in Rosemead, a Los Angeles suburb, and began adding other sauces—sriracha, named after the traditional Asian chili sauces from the seaside town of Si Racha, Thailand, was by far his most successful. Tran’s Huy Fong Foods now sells more than 10 million bottles of it a year.
It is currently Huy Fong Foods’ best-known and best-selling item, easily recognized by its bright red color and its packaging: a clear plastic bottle with a green cap, text in five languages (Vietnamese, English, Chinese, French and Spanish) and the rooster logo. The company has warned customers about counterfeit versions of its sauces. The Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce recipe has not changed since 1983. The bottle lists the ingredients “chili, sugar, salt, garlic, distilled vinegar, potassium sorbate, sodium bisulfite and xanthan gum.”
In Dec. 2009, Bon Appétit magazine named this Sriracha sauce Ingredient of the Year for 2010. It also featured recipes that included Sriracha making the sauce’s popularity grew exponentially beyond the initial Asian American fanbase. I’d almost say it has reached cult icon status and here’s a roundup of knick-knacks derived from Sriracha sauce’s unmistakable red bottle with green top packaging. This New York Times article on Sriracha sauce has reported that people made Halloween costumes fashioned after the bottle and someone even tattooed the logo onto his calf!
The Sriracha Cookbook: 50 “Rooster Sauce” Recipes that Pack a Punch
Sriracha Poster , An Ode to Sriracha Print, Sriracha Print, Love You Long Time Sriracha Print, You’re A Hottie Letterpress Card, Sriracha Lip Balm
Sriracha Popcorn, Sriracha Logo Embroidery, Kiss The Cock Apron, Sriracha Boxer Briefs, Sriracha Addict Tshirt
Do not miss this hilarious Sriracha comic from TheOatmeal.
Here’s an awesome Sriracha Infographic!
I brought back a huge bottle from my last trip back to NY. Unfortunately, this wonderful sauce is not yet stocked in Singapore. Or I could be wrong… if anyone sees it, please let me know?
Toodles,
-MB.
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