Hey, have you ever caught yourself saying to someone, “I put hot sauce on everything,” as if you need to apologize or explain it?
Why do you think you do this? Do you feel self-conscious about your love of hot sauce? Like maybe you are a little overzealous with your usage of it, or maybe normal people don’t go through the big bottle of Sriracha or Cholula or Tapatio in a single week?
Maybe you have, while eating in the privacy of your own home, sat down with a plate of food, taken a few bites, realized you ruined whatever you intended to cook, got back up, grabbed a bottle of hot sauce, covered the entire dish in it, and then ate all the food without further thought. Maybe you have done this more than a dozen times in the last year, and you wonder why you never see anyone doing it on a cooking show, or seen it described in a cookbook, i.e., “Let cool for 5 minutes, then douse with Tabasco, and serve.”
Have you ever poured hot sauce on a restaurant dish without tasting it first? Have you ever struggled through the last 90 percent of a meal because you overzealously applied hot sauce to it at the beginning, and then must deal with the fallout of pitting out your shirt, wiping sweat off your forehead, and frantically chugging water and trying to exhale cool air onto your tongue? Have you ever put hot sauce on ice cream? Have you ever stirred hot sauce into ketchup? Have you ever said to someone, “I would eat dog food if you put enough Tapatio on it.” Have you ever received a strange look from a server at a restaurant when asking for hot sauce with your meal?
All these things are OK. Hot sauce is OK, on any food you want to use it on. It is OK even if other people say it isn’t. It is OK if you want to put so much hot sauce on your food that it becomes inedible to all human beings, including yourself. If you prefer all of your food to have the bright reddish-orange tint of a coating only a blanket of Cholula can provide, you are not wrong. We did not drag ourselves out of the ocean, develop thumbs, and learn to use fire and tools so we could eat bland food.
You do not need to ask anyone for their permission or blessing to put hot sauce on something. You do not need to Google whether or not it’s OK to put hot sauce on something either (although someone apparently does). If your friends think you’re disgusting, get new friends. What is culinarily frowned upon in one country is commonplace somewhere in the world.
People say variety is the spice of life, but that isn’t necessarily true for everyone. Sometimes capsaicin is the spice of life. It can be the spice of your life.
-Brendan
This is ME… I can admit to all of this with the exception of ice cream. I’ve also begun experimenting with making my own (hot green sauce). We are moving from CA to UT in a few days and will be bringing with me my stash of frozen hot Hatch chilies in an ice chest… These little beauties won’t be available in stores till early Fall.
I’d like to take a moment to sing the praises of oft overlooked and under appreciated Tapatio hot sauce that you so graciously included in your article. I used to order a 1/2 dozen quart sized containers of this wondrous elixir online as it was the most efficient way to obtain it. That was enough for about six months of home use and it got me free shipping. I was intrigued by the slight sweetness of Cholula but alas I could never find it in bulk for a reasonable cost so Tapatio was my HSOC (Hot Sauce Of Choice) for years.
For whatever reason I made the switch to Sriracha when I moved back east and enjoyed it as my HSOC for all foods except mexican where Cholula stepped in as it was the only non tabasco style (the worst) sauce available and delicious if not a bit pricey for a high volume user such as myself. I love Sriracha as it has a different range than the mexican hot sauces but after the manufacturing plant closure scare the relationship is a bit tenuous.
Thankfully, I recently found Tapatio at the local grocery store and for only $1.79 a bottle. My tastebuds and wallet rejoiced and I’ve been enjoying a hot sauce renaissance for the past few months. After all these years I still prefer Tapatio over all the other mexican style hot sauces.
What’s your favorite?
secret aardvark habanero hot sauce is the best stuff on the planet
Tapatio or Tabasco Chipotle sauce.
When getting Chipotle to go, I always ask for a container to put some of the Chipotle Tabasco sauce in and the employees every time(but once) have told me to just take one of the bottles with me.
Can’t beat that!
Gotta be Jungle Heat brand! Any flavour but the mango heat is my favourite
Extra Hot Texas Pete
I vote for Tapatio. Love it on pop corn too.
CHOLULA! Either that or the local favorite, Horsetooth hot sauce.
Cholula on (most) everything. Plus it’s one of the funnest words to say…and I never tire of saying it.
dude you totally did not mention Sriracha. i’m disappointed. hilarious nonetheless!
Not a hot sauce girl, but I can taco season the everliving daylights out of just about anything.
I’m going to attempt a Sriracha-enhanced chocolate cake in a few weeks! This will require a few test runs, of course. I’ll post my findings!
Crystal hot sauce on cheap spaghetti all day every day.