Posted on 12/11/2022 12:37:49 PM PST by DFG
From beer and beef jerky to donuts and everything at Pizza Hut, sriracha has become a culinary mainstay of America. The story of how the hot sauce came to the country is also one of immigration.
One of the earliest records of sriracha dates back to 1949, when a woman in Thailand made a chili sauce using chili peppers, vinegar, sugar, salt, and garlic. She named it after the small seaside town she lived in, Si Racha.
But sriracha in its most ubiquitous form — a plastic bottle filled with chili sauce and topped with a green cap — was brought to America by David Tran a few decades later.
-snip-
Things took a turn after the Vietnam War. In 1978, the new Communist Vietnamese government began cracking down on ethnic Chinese in South Vietnam, believing that China was using immigrants to destabilize and weaken the country's economy in the lead-up to a military attack, according to historian Gareth Porter. The suspicion and persecution of Chinese immigrants only intensified with the outbreak of the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979.
Tran and 3,000 other refugees boarded the freighter boat Huey Fong to Hong Kong, and from there landed in America on January 19, 1979. Tran was granted asylum, and started his new life in Boston — though he didn't stay there for long.
"My brother-in-law was in Los Angeles. When we talked on the phone, I asked him, 'Do they have red peppers in Los Angeles?' He said yes. And we left," Tran told the Times in 2009.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Sriracha: Don’t be home without it!
This man’s story is very inspiring. Some years ago there was a great documentary about him, but I think it’s pay to view now...
https://www.amazon.com/Sriracha-David-Tran/dp/B00MLYNYDI
Yesterday I saw that the McIlhenny Tabasco people are making it. Has anybody tried that?
Mature jalapeño sauce.
Occasionally crave the taste, so keep some around.
I am a big fan of hot sauces (mostly Mexican) but not Sriracha. BUT I admire the hell out of an immigrant who made it big. Not like the MS-13 and Venezuelan criminal class that crosses our porous border.
Little known factoid.
All chilis found around the world today have their origins in Mexico, Central America, and South America. They were spread by Spanish and Portuguese colonists, missionaries, and traders, together with many other now common crops such as maize, tomatoes and pineapples through the Columbian Exchange. The chili varieties found in Southeast Asia today were brought there in the 16th or 17th century.
So really, Sriracha just came back home.
Try the yellow sriracha.
“The yellow sriracha comes from Three Mountains, a small chili farm in Sriracha, Thailand, and made from yellow Thai burapa chilis, that has a complex spicy sweet flavor and rich consistency. It is a little sweeter, less vinegary, almost citrusy version of the traditional rooster brand Sriracha.”
It shows you how a group of immigrants can overcome resistance from the natives. I recall intensely angry and bitter feelings when the Vietnam War finally ended around 1971. Most Americans wanted nothing to do with anyone connected to that country or perhaps, not even to that race.
Go forward a couple of years, a Viet-American named Maya Lin, a 21, y/o college student, wins a design contest for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. There was a LOT of resistance and fury, but congress didn’t change there decision.
By 1982, that long black granite wall was up and available to the public. That wall shows the names of people who died or were declared as MIA during that wartime.
That memorial has since been embraced by the public as a profoundly important tribute to our troops.
I recall the anger quite vividly. Some of my family had lost their sons in that war. I have a cousin who remains subdued and sort of ‘not there’ to this very day. He also served.
He refuses to talk about it.
I loved it when I was younger, but it’s somehow too hot now that I’m an old girl. I use Trader Joe Hot and Sweet sauce, which is perfect. Try it if you have TJ in your ‘hood.
Yesterday I saw that the McIlhenny Tabasco people are making it. Has anybody tried that?
= = =
And there is a Trader Joe’s version.
Good on some stuff, not a good ‘paring’ on others.
The war ended in 1975, not 1971. I remember, I was 16 years old at the time.
I talked about the refugees in this episode of my podcast:
https://blubrry.com/hoseasia/87495585/episode-122-the-boat-people/
David Tran is mentioned there, but for more about him, look up Episode 293 of another program, The China History Podcast.
Many years ago my husband and I went for dinner at a local chinese restaurant where they had Sriracha sauce on the table. We tried it and both of us liked it a lot. So I bought a bottle of it at the restaurant for christmas for hubbie.As time went on, I began to see it in grocery stores for a lot cheaper than the one from the restaurant.
I can’t eat it anymore, my mouth was severely damaged by a thrush infection which left my mouth very tender. I used to love hot food. Oh well. At least we got to enjoy it for a while!
I first became acquainted with Sriracha ( see-rah-cha) hot sauce when I was living in Pattaya Thailand for 5 months in 1985-86. I was the ubiquitous required condiment for the various kinds of fried seafood dishes, of which Chonburi Province, on the Gulf of Siam, abounded. Named for, as the article states, a little coastal village just up the coast from Pattaya. I quickly discovered that Sriracha went very well with PadThai, which to this day is still just about my favorite Thai dish. The original and authentic Thai Sriracha is quite different than the Viet/U.S. version. It is a light orange color, not red food dye red. It’s a little sweeter, smoother, and in some versions much hotter than the U.S. version. It is still available in the U.S. in certain Asia food groceries and comes in a tall glass bottle. Still delicious. And, in my opinion, much tastier. It still rocks a hot plate of padthai too!
If you are ever in Pattaya, take a quick trip up the coast to SriRacha so you can say “ You were there “ Have some authentic Sriracha, on top of a nice plate of Hoy Lai Pad, while you’re at it....
Don’t forget the potato.
Native to the Andes, and practically fed Europe a few hundred years later, to the point where a potato disease forced half of Ireland to North America and Australia!
I’ll have to take the Trader Joe Hot Sauce Challenge and see what transpires!
The advantages of online shopping cannot be overstated.
I like real shopping, but I don’t like worrying about driving or parking.
You’re most likely correct about the end of that war.
The early 70’s have begun smushing together for me here lately.
Sriracha: Don’t be home without it!
It’s a staple around here. Funny thing is that I never liked hot and spicy of anything but since we’ve been eating Chinese more than in the past the hotter the better. Don’t get me started on hot mustard.....;)
That sauce is extremely hot. Very good, but don’t over do it. Loved it in my Pho. 🙂
Yessir. I knew a Special Forced Colonel who spent time in Peru. He told me how the locals were bragging about that and could tell him the number of varieties they had.
Also the New World gave the world tomatoes, corn and chocolate. And of course, Rum.
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