A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Is Sriracha Overrated?

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

Today, Josh and Nicole are diving deep into the iconic rooster sauce known as Huy Fong Food's Sriracha and answering the question is the original sriracha overrated? Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@mythicalkitchen To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Sriracha mayo. It's been done. Sriracha ketchup. That's a thing. Sriracha socks. Dude, I literally have a pair at home. Sriracha yogurt.

Giovanni did that in like 2013, dude. You gotta be kidding me. This is a hot dog is a sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich.

What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scherer. And I'm your host, Nicole Inayati. And today, Nicole, we are taking on a massive ecological and economic question right here. Correct. We are talking about, is sriracha overrated? And, Nicole, the reason this has an ecological and economic impact is because we are going through an unprecedented time right here. Correct. We are talking about is Sriracha overrated? And Nicole, the reason this has an ecological and economic impact is because we are going through an

unprecedented time right now. These are unprecedented times. There's not a single precedent for these times. No, never, never. There is a massive Sriracha shortage that the entire world is dealing with. Bottles are selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay. People are going to black market sources, I assume, and they're getting their bottles filled up they're just bringing empty bottles and some guy in a back alley is just going and sucking it out of the factory siphoning it spitting it into the bottles that's not true at all but but there is a massive sriracha shortage right now and so we are going to go through the question of like should people even care is it overrated all along is it warranting a shortage is what you're asking

is it warranting a shortage okay fair um're asking. Is it warranting a shortage? Okay, fair. But first, we should get into why the shortage is happening. I think we should get into what sriracha is. Okay, yeah. Go back to the beginning. Sriracha is not just a hot sauce. It's a way of life. Well, hold on. Are you talking about

when you say sriracha, do you mean the rooster sauce? You're talking about Hoi Fung foods. Well, of course, that's my first inclination. That's like my first, my synapses tell me. Yeah, like in A Clockwork Orange, you hear sriracha and you start seeing the images of the rooster in your mind. My eyes are open like this. Maggie's putting eye drops in there.

And it's flashes of rooster sauce. Yeah, I'm seeing like the $10 t-shirts at Target with the sriracha logo on it. It's iconic. It's the lime green tip and the super red orange bottle. You know, that's iconic. But I know that Sriracha isn't like just that. It is more than that.

It's an all-encompassing sauce, right? It is, but in a really weird roundabout way. So a lot of people might think that Sriracha is a brand name. It is not. There is no copyright on the word Sriracha. Now, that's one of the questions I have as a person. From someone who does not own an LLC, someone who doesn't do anything financially

or honestly intelligently most of the time, why didn't the person who made the rooster sauce that we know and love, why didn't they trademark sriracha? A couple reasons. So they've asked, David Tran is the founder of Hoi Fong Foods, which makes the most popular sriracha in the world. People have asked him about it, and he was like, well, I didn't want to gatekeep anything.

I wanted people to, I wanted to spread the gospel of sriracha. He's a good person. Potentially, potentially, potentially. In that aspect, he was moral. That's what he said. Okay. But it may have just been that he didn't really know you had to do that

and then it was kind of too late. Because he has since trademarked, he's trademarked the logo and he signs licensing deals, but also several of these licensing deals. So for instance, there's a microbrewery that makes a Sriracha stout that if you've had it, I don't need spicy beer. You know what I mean? Yeah, I drink beer to quell the spice.

Correctamundo. It's a cool product and it's actually a really beautiful bottle. It has a green bottle cap on it. But there is Sriracha popcorn, Sriracha flavored chips. And so if they want to use the logo, then he licensed it to them them but he also isn't charging them. Just the logo not the name? Because the name isn't trademarked still. But the logo is so if they want to use that they would have to pay him but he doesn't even take money from them. He uses it as free advertising

and that's another potential reason to not trademark something. That's pretty smart. The fact that Heinz makes Sriracha ketchup, Lee Kum Kee makes Sriracha mayo, McDonald's Kee makes sriracha mayo, McDonald's was putting sriracha on their burgers. And I got to say, I enjoy McDonald's, but their sriracha was really not great. It was poopy.

It was like weirdly creamy and very, very sweet. Yeah, I didn't really enjoy it. So part of it is really worked out in his favor. The fact that everyone wanted to make sriracha made his sriracha even more popular. Cool. But then came what he himself in an interview called the rooster killer, which is Tabasco. Tabasco started making their own sriracha, which... Oh my God, it's so good.

Have you had it? You like it? I literally hoard it in my house. I have like four bottles at home of the Tabasco sriracha. It is so delicious. My husband literally asked me specifically before, he's like, don't buy any other sriracha. That's the sriracha I love. That's incredible.

So I have this theory. One, Tabasco is just, it's owned by, what is it? Is it McElhenney? It's a family, right? McElhenney? McElhenney? It's, yeah, but it's distributed by massive brands. It's been around for about 100 years.

Yeah, it's iconic in its own right. Tabasco pepper sauce. 100%. So they have a massive marketing budget, massive legal budget, et cetera, et cetera. And so David Tran is now getting freaked out by Tabasco pepper sauce. 100%. So they have a massive marketing budget, massive legal budget, etc. And so David Tran is now getting freaked out by Tabasco getting in the market that he was like, I maybe should have trademarked something. I think it's still going pretty well for him.

But with the shortage, you're opening it up to a lot of these competitors out there. And now everyone has a Sriracha, right? Lee Kum Kee, I think, makes the best Sriracha substitute for Hoi Fong. I think they're the closest. You think so? Okay, okay. Trader Joe's has the one with the dragon on it. Texas Pete's makes their own. I believe Yellowbird makes their

own. Yes, they do. And so now there's a bunch of competitors coming in. Blue Agave. It's a Blue Agave sriracha. That's my biggest problem with all the sriracha competitors because I've been out there with the sriracha shortage buying up the competition because I won it. And I literally two days ago just ran out of my big ass bottle in my fridge.

But they're all too sweet. And I think it's because so many people in America conflate East Asian food with sweetness. A hint of sweetness. Yeah, sure. And sriracha does have sugar in it. Hoi Fong sriracha does. But it's not like a sweet sauce.

It's very intensely chili flavored. I would say Sambal Olek, the one that's also in the bottle with the green top. Which is, yeah, made by the same company. Yeah, I'd say that is sweeter.

Maybe. Am I wrong? No, there's definitely sugar. There's definitely sugar in it. That's more sugary. But that's a really interesting, so yeah, we should get into the history

of Sriracha because the Sambal Olek that the same company makes is kind of the same relationship to David Tran, the founder. I kind of like it more sometimes. Same, same. I absolutely love it. The chili garlic sauce as well, which is really similar.

But so Sriracha is a town in Thailand. It's about 120 kilometers southeast, I'm so bad at directions, of Bangkok. Okay, cool. It's a seaside town, kind of like a surf town. Oh, cool. It's a seaside town, kind of like a surf town. Oh, man. And there was literally just one woman. Her name is Thanom Chakapak. That's right, yeah.

She started making what she was calling siracha panich hot sauce. And her recipe was incredibly, incredibly specific. It was made with only fresh goat peppers. Goat. Goat. Like Kobe Bryant goat. Kobe Bryant goat. Yeah, yeah. I had never even heard only fresh goat peppers. Goat. Goat. Like Kobe Bryant goat. Kobe Bryant goat. Yeah, yeah.

I had never even heard of a goat pepper. I've never heard of the goat. I've heard of the ghost pepper. Same. I literally thought it was a mistranslation, and then I had to Google it. It's a cousin of the scotch bonnet or the habanero. Oh, okay. So, you know, round, boldish, very bright, very fruity.

Fruity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fruity for sure. Intensely spicy. Yeah. When you think of Thailand, you generally think of what we would just call a Thai chili pepper or a bird's eye pepper. You know what I mean? So small, nuclear, very heavily seeded.

The flavor isn't that like sunny, light, bright. Almost a grassier flavor. Are goat peppers specifically in sriracha? Or is it just like a Thai pepper that's like sprinkled with hot sauce? So there was no such, sriracha hot sauce was not a thing. Like it was literally invented by one family. It was one family's recipe. It wasn't, it wasn't chaka pak?

Well, so it was chaka pak, but I'm saying like it wasn't, you know. Not everybody had sriracha. Aioli, right? Aioli you can trace back to like recipes a thousand years ago, yada yada, and all that. That wasn't the case with sriracha Panej hot sauce. It was one family who was like, I want to make something new today. And it was actually Chaka Pak, her grandfather, I believe, started like tinkering with it.

Shut up. It's cool as hell. And they would just give it to friends and families. They start selling it. And then Chaka Pak herself, she started to bottle it at the behest of friends. They were just like yo you gotta give me a bottle you gotta give me stuff man it's delicious yeah and so that was in like the the late 40s i believe and then it just sort of grew and grew and then she sold to a big thai distributor

and then now it's the most popular uh sriracha sauce in thailand and they've floated the idea of bottling in america and getting distro rights. But in comes David Tran. And he's like, no, no, no. Who had just, I suppose, visited Sriracha and was like, hey, I like this. But he was making hot sauce in his own style in South Vietnam, where he was from. So he's ethnically Chinese in Vietnam.

This is, you know, after the Vietnam War and there was a lot of anti- chinese sentiment in vietnam there's a sino china the sino vietnamese war uh and so he leaves as a refugee and his boat is called the name of his company and so he uh settles in boston okay has a brother-in-law in los angeles and he literally calls him and according to his legend, at least, he just goes, you know, they got chili peppers in LA. And he's like, yeah. Yeah.

And he's like, bet. I'm going to be there soon. Oh, nice. Okay. So he was making this hot sauce inspired by the sriracha hot sauce of Chocopuck. And then he gets to LA and finds an abundance of Mexican chili peppers. Wow. So he starts using red jalapenos.

Brilliant. And a very similar method. So the ingredients are basically jalapeno, garlic, vinegar, sugar. That's kind of it. So it's not, you know, American vinegar-based hot sauce like Tabasco or just sugar, vinegar, chili peppers. In water. Yeah.

Actually, no, no water. No water in what? There's no water in Tabasco. There's no water in Tabasco? It's vinegar, chilies, and salt. In water. Yeah. Actually, no, no water. No water in what? There's no water in Tabasco. There's no water in Tabasco? It's vinegar, chilies, and salt. Shut up. Which is why it's so acidic, right? Like, why is it so watery?

But it's vinegar. And they strain it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It makes sense. It makes sense. So it's that and then it's strained, but sriracha is like unstrained, so there's a lot of chili pulp in it. Pulpy.

There's sugar in it, so you get like a lacto-fermentation. You get the sweetness. There's garlic in it, so you get like a lacto-fermentation. You get the sweetness. There's garlic in it, so you get that extra aromatic flavor. So it's still very simple, but it's like a new dimension of taste that a lot of Americans hadn't had before. And also it's very different from the Thai version. Yeah, it's also really funky. Have you ever noticed like eating sriracha on its own, like on a spoon?

It is so funky and deep. It's like abrasive too. It's strong. It's a abrasive too. It's strong. It's a bracing flavor. Yes, it is. You know? And so they actually NPR'd this incredible story where they sent a reporter with a bottle of Hoi Fung Sriracha, which at the time was not really in Thailand at all.

Okay. That makes sense. And this is after the company had really blown up. It became a cultural phenomenon, right? Yeah. It was like bacon. It was like bacon. Yeah.

They were making Sriracha rub bacon. It was like bacon, yeah. You had them, they were making sriracha rubbed bacon, you know what I mean? And so it became this cultural phenomenon and they bring back this sriracha hot sauce from Hoi Fong Foods to sriracha the town.

Okay. And they start like giving it to locals being like, hey, so this is really big in America. And they're like, what? I've never heard of this. Oh my gosh.

So they start giving it to locals and at least in this story, every single person they interviewed was just like, this. Oh my gosh. So they start giving it to locals and at least in this story, every single person they interviewed was just like, this sucks. No way. And they asked them why and they were like,

I guess there's this Thai term that I'd never heard before called klom klom. Okay. Which like, it doesn't have a direct translation but it kind of just means like, everything is in balance.

You have balanced your, Thai food is one of my favorite cuisines in the entire world. Because it's so balanced. It's balanced, but everything is ramped up. Sure. So it tends to be very high acid. You think of a papaya salad, right?

Sure. High acid, high spice, a lot of sweetness, a lot of umami. Firing at all cylinders, yeah. Everything is firing. And when it coalesces into the perfect bite, there is nothing like it in the world. Sure. And that is called klom-clom. And they're like, sriracha doesn't have that.

They're like, this is, it's bitter. It's cloying. It's not balanced. And they're like, sriracha panich, the OG, that's clom-clom for days, baby. You know? And so when you talk about like, is sriracha overrated, you know, you actually think about the flavor and you're like, is this the best thing? Or is it a thing

that you and I grew up with and became a cultural phenomenon so we followed suit? You know, yeah, we're part of, are we just part of the mass hysteria? I mean, I do think sriracha is delicious,

but am I just saying that just to say it? I don't know. Your eyes, when we said Tabasco sriracha, which like we mentioned, it is a lot sweeter than sriracha.

Yeah, it's good. And if it's, you know, I think. There's no com-com. There's no com-com. No com-com. Sriracha, which like we mentioned, it is a lot sweeter than Sriracha. Yeah, it's good. And if it's, you know, I think. There's no com com. There's no com com. No com com. No, no, like it's not, you know what I mean? But do you think that there are better brands out there than Hoi Fong and that you're buying Hoi Fong for the label, for the nostalgia that you have for the bottle? Well, the only reason I buy Sriracha is because I live with someone that can't eat food without chili peppers all over it.

I have watched your husband at like a Jewish high holiday dinner just go, Ma, hot sauce. And he's literally taking like, you know, traditional Persian Jewish dishes and just like dumping red rooster on it. He can't eat food without hot sauce. Welcome to LA, baby. It's a lifestyle. So I always have like different kinds of hot sauces in bulk. Also, I love hot sauce myself. I always have it on lock.

But what did you ask me? I'm sorry, I got distracted because you ruined like this on Kabob and I'm like, what's going on? No, I'm saying, do you think that pound for pound, the green bottle cap rooster sauce,

Hoi Fong food sriracha, actually tastes better than these others. Like in a blind taste test. Oh, well, in a blind, you know, I will say that I've gone, ever since there has been a sriracha shortage, I have bought about five different kinds of sriracha. And the taste of sriracha is iconic and distinct.

I will say that. 100%, unmistakable. The Hoi Fong one, you can taste it out of like a lineup. But is it the best one? I don't know. I think it has a lot to do with the visual. I think when you open up your fridge and you see that green tip, it's just, you're like, everything is right with the world because you have your sriracha bottle.

100%. And you have it next to your Tabasco. It looks right in your fridge. Exactly. I keep it next to the milk.co. It looks right in your fridge. Exactly. I keep it next to the milk. Like, that's what I'm saying. Like, of course it is. Is it the best hot sauce in the world? Probably not. Is it, is it delicious? Yeah. But is it the most important thing? No. But is it visually pleasing? Absolutely. A hundred percent. Like when I open it and I say, I'm like,

okay, everything's fine. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Same. It's comforting. It's, it's this crazy, that green tip is such insane marketing. And it was deliberate. It was like green connotes freshness. It's going to be a heavy color pop against our like bright red hot sauce made with the red jalapeno peppers. Yeah.

Yeah. I have a surprise for you. What? Should I show you the surprise right now? Show me your surprise. Do you want me to cover my eyes? No, no, no. It's okay.

You can keep your eyes open. Okay. No, show me. No, you can show me. My eyes are covered. No, no, no. You can open your eyes. Okay.

I thought you were going to have it in front of you. So you know on eBay how they're reselling scratch bottles for what? Like $100? Yeah, yeah. $50? So I found something in my mother-in-law's pantry. You found a $100 bill and you're going to buy Sriracha with it?

No. Get the heck out of here. I found a Sriracha bottle, Hoi Fong. Now here's the kicker. When do you think this expired? I can tell that this is expired by the way it looks. Okay, when do you think it expired? 2021.

No. When? One more guess. 2018? I don't know. No, no, no. December 2022. So it's not the oldest thing in the world. It's aged. It's barrel aged. It's a little bit aged.

It's pantry aged from your stepmom. Not stepmom, mother-in-law. I don't know what they're called. And as you can see, $3.29. Now, if you want to, listen, listen. David has an eBay store. What we can do is we can sell this and we can go 50-50 on it. Maggie, I'll give you like, I don't know, 20%.

And we can go 50-50 on it. We can sell this. The fact that it's aged might also make the price go up like a bottle of wine. I think it will. Do you want to sell it on eBay? No, but at this point, like we got to sit on it for 20, 25 years.

You know what I mean? We got to really sit. It's just going to go up in value. It's like a baseball card. You ever hear those stories like somebody sold a baseball card for $10,000 in 1990. Now it's worth $9 million.

Ha, ha. I don't know how money works. No, you can. So this is like super dark. It looks super oxidized. But also, this is the thing dark It looks super oxidized But also This is the thing I didn't realize Sriracha

Generally It's never food dyed It's never color corrected like that Okay And so earlier in the season Sriracha that was bottled Will actually look different Than late season Sriracha

Shut up It'll be darker late season So maybe this is just a late harvest Sriracha A late harvest Sriracha I didn't know It is approximately six months expired But who hasn't had a little bit of expired hot sauce in their fridge i agree entirely often i agree entirely well let's see chili sugar salt garlic acetic acid potassium excuse me sorbate sodium

bisulfate as preserves anthem gum love it i think there's something really inspiring about hoi fong sriracha and david tran's journey in the sense that it is a knockoff of a knockoff of something from Thailand that the locals there actually hate. Literally hate it. And that I don't even know if it culinarily is like the best sauce. However, I have become so accustomed to the unique taste of Hoi Fong Sriracha that anything else doesn't taste right. When you get pho, right?

Like I'm not a person who squirts sriracha into the broth or whatever. Me either. My favorite thing to do is I take the hoisin and the sriracha and I put it in a little dish and I put them next to each other and then I take my meat and I take it out of the pho with the broth still on it and I dab it in both and then I slurp up the meat. And that's an important part of it, right? Sometimes if I want to feel something, I'll just dip, you know, a chopstick into sriracha

and do... Sure, sure. I do that too. Any other brand, it does not taste right in that context. I think it's because everyone makes it so corn syrupy. I agree. It's just unenjoyable to eat on its own. But sriracha is good on its own.

They just got such a cultural stranglehold. It's ridiculous. You know, sort of kind of plagiarizing the work of others, but also creating a unique product with local ingredients, right? So we got to get into the shortage and why it's happening. So Sriracha, it exploded so, so, so much. Their factory is in Irwindale, California, which is the only time I've been to Irwindale.

It's probably like 60 miles, maybe like 40 miles east of Burbank. The only time I've been to Irwindale, it's probably like 60 miles, maybe like 40 miles east of Burbank. Okay. The only time I've been to Irwindale is because they have a speedway there. And for my dad's like 60th birthday. Like a racetrack. A racetrack. Oh, okay. For my dad's 60th birthday, we got him this like experience where he could like drive a turbocharged Camaro around the racetrack.

That's cute. Holy crap. That sounds like a good dad thing. He was loving it. And the funny, this is just a fun little aside about how my dad was. So there was another group of young-ish kids

like my brother and me's age who also bought their Boomer Dad the same experience for his birthday. So it was just Boomer Dad v. Boomer Dad. And what they did is you start on opposite

ends of the track and you're just supposed to like go around like this. Right? And you're not supposed to race each other because that's dangerous. Okay.

But they're trying to double up on the amount of people that can get on a track at one time. Okay, okay. The other boomer dad was driving too slow and so my dad said,

screw it, I'm going to drop the hammer on him and everyone is yelling at my dad like, don't pass him, you're not allowed to do that.

My dad was like, we're coming through, baby. He was from Pennsylvania, he doesn't have a southern accent. Were you in the car with him? No, we were like, my brother and I were like watching with the other Boomer Dads kids.

Just being like, Boomer Dads, huh? And they're like, Boomer Dads. Are those lifelong friends now? No, they're not. I think they were actually kind of mad at our dad for passing their dad and emasculating him. Sorry about that. Point is that racetrack is a couple miles from the Sriracha factory. Nice, nice, nice.

And the Sriracha factory was literally, it had nice. And the Sriracha factory was literally, it had grown so large against all odds because it was a small business that the fumes of the chilies were literally poisoning the town and they had to like sue as a whole thing. Like Aaron Brockovich. Like Aaron Brockovich, just like Aaron Brockovich.

Just like Aaron Brockovich. Or the Matt Damon movie with John Krasinski. I don't know who that is. No, you know this one. I don't know what you're talking about. It was called like Promise Land or something dumb. I don't know what you're talking about. It was all fracking and I didn't know anything about it.

I don't know what you're talking about. Anywho. So you basically get this small company that has this massive operation now. And now things are getting a little wonky. They're poisoning the town. They're poisoning the town because they just never expected to be that big. And so their suppliers now, they use red jalapeno chilies, right?

And so they initially were using a farm in California called Underwood, which... I've gone strawberry picking there. We've gone strawberry picking there. Not we, I. Oh, I've been separately from you. We didn't go together. Yeah, we don't go together.

I also picked like cucumbers and basil. Yeah, I've gone, I used to, I've been for my birthday and I actually, side note, you had a little anecdote about birthdays. So do I. I got all of my friends on a party bus, got them absolutely hammered and made them work in the field in like 95 degree heat. And we picked strawberries and it was really, really fun.

So that's their like PR arm, right? Uh-huh. Oh, how do they poison the town? Oh, that's a great question, Maggie. So it was just fumes. Fumes. Pepper fumes. Maggie, you know when we cook in here and we cook a spicy food?

Yeah. And there's all the chili pepper fumes that you don't like? It makes me cough. It makes you cough, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Imagine if you were just sitting in your home and you had an asthmatic child and the fumes wouldn't stop. Hate that.

Hate that. That's what was happening in Irwindale. So Underwood Farms was their supplier, actually, Underwood Branches. Okay. But I think where we went is called Underwood Family Farms, which is their PR. That's like their client-facing production, right? I love that place, and I want to go again. I'd love to, too.

I had a great time. I got a beat from there. Me, too. But anyway, so Underwood was supplying all their chilies, and then they had some sort of legal dispute. I believe Hoi Fong had to pay a $23 million settlement, and they cut ties. They're like, we can get cheaper, more abundant chilies from Mexico.

That's where jalapenos are from originally, obviously. And then Mexico basically suffered this super drought, and so there were shorter growing seasons and all this. And so Hoi Fong hasn't, they've been a little cagey about why exactly it's happening. All they're saying is they have supplier issues. Some people are saying it is because of the drought and because of climate change and wonky growing seasons. Oh, oh. However, however, when you ask any other major hot sauce brand, not even major, minor included, they're all just like, we've had no difficulties whatsoever.

Have you asked any? I haven't reached out to them myself. They've been quoted in articles. There's a New York Times article where they were talking to like Yellow Bird. They were talking to Tabasco uses red jalapenos as well. And everybody seems to be able to get their product out just fine. So I get the sense that Hoi Fong is just going through some weird, wonky corporate stuff where they tried to switch suppliers. Sounds like it.

And then if one supplier drops and they can't immediately find another one, that they just can't keep up. Why didn't they just like breadcrumb them? You know, just like give 10% to them, give 20% the next season, 30%. And that's what I would have done as a person who does not have an LLC. Hoi Fong Foods, bring on Nicole Aniety as your official consultant. Yeah, you can find me on Twitter. But that's kind of what a lot of people have been saying, that like they just kind of messed up their supply lines

and because they have always been sort of a smaller company that they didn't have the you know, the resources to actually get there, which is why you see these companies selling out to big distributors. Sure. It's because you have access. Like Kraft and Unilever and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah. But do you think it's overrated?

Shoot. Do you? It's rated very high. It's rated, no. My official answer is no. There is, right, taste is so subjective, right? And hot sauce specifically to me, it's such a subjective food. And it's also like Americans have a very unique relationship to hot sauce.

Hot ones, for example, I don't think would have worked in France. You know what I mean? There's so many different small batch hot sauces that make things so unique and so different that I think if you were to blind taste test me with any hot sauce, I think my palate would be very, very confused. I think hot sauce is very, it's a very branding forward. It is all branding. It's like books. Ass blaster 2000, you know? Like I always judge books by their covers before I read them. You are literally defying the metaphor. You literally judge books by their covers? Yeah, I'm literally a walking, talking

anti-metaphor. That's incredible. I guess I do the same thing with hot sauce then. Yeah, of course we do. Have you ever been to the hot sauce store in the Grove, the mall? Yeah. That's one of my favorite places. It's great. There's a hot sauce store on the Jersey Ocean City boardwalk that I love going to

every time I'm out there with Jules. I'm going to go there in like a week or two. It's going to be really lovely. Everybody come find me there. You're going to buy an ass blaster 5,000 hot sauce? I probably am. I bought a delicious Calypso sauce from them last time. Yum, yum, yum.

You know what I mean? But no, it's so tough to call Sriracha overrated because I think it's such a nostalgic taste for me. And I would never want to subject it to a blind taste test. And even if I did, I would know that this was Hoi Fung Sriracha. 100%. And I would still be biased. And there's nothing wrong with that. You are biased in all foods, right? Of course we are.

Foods are not in a vacuum. They shouldn't be in a vacuum. Yeah. But no, I don't think, I think calling it overrated is unfair. I mean, it's obviously not overrated. I mean, look at the hysteria of people selling it on eBay For so much money I mean people are hoarding it in their homes People are buying knockoffs trying to get that same feeling

They're trying to buy a knockoff of a knockoff Of a knockoff Trying to feel that same delicious flavor And they just can't get it You're like almost there What's that thing called where you're almost there and then you're not? A phantom limb itch i was gonna say edging oh edging yeah you can talk about it it's like it's like it's people i don't know if i'm allowed to now you're making it weird the fact

that sriracha is so the fact that hoi fong food sriracha is so iconic there's no way it can be overrated there's no way in hell. Yeah. It's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Exactly. It's un-American to think Sriracha is overrated. It's created, I mean, it's expanded a lot of people's culinary horizons. 100%. I mean, there's a lot of people who I know that were like anti-hot sauce. They're like, I can't stomach the stuff. I don't like it on anything. And they now are Sriracha fans because it's palatable for the American. It looks like ketchup. That's another thing.

I think that's a, I think that's a huge key to its success. Oh, interesting. For the American audience. It looks and it squirts like ketchup. There was a great quote. That was weird.

I feel like Maggie didn't agree with that one. That's fine. Maggie doesn't have to agree with everything I say, but there was a great interview with a Vietnamese chef in the New York Times. And she used the phrase that I thought was hilarious. Just sriracha is like ketchup for Americans. And I was like, ketchup is like ketchup for Americans. But the fact that we've literally switched, right?

Salsa for the first time. This is a huge cultural moment in the U.S. This is true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Outsold ketchup in 1993, I think. That's so wild. For the first time ever in grocery stores, right? Showing the U.S. This is true, yeah, yeah, yeah. Outsold ketchup in 1993, I think. That's so wild. For the first time ever in grocery stores, right?

Showing the changing American palate. And I think Hoi Fung Sriracha is a massive part in that story. I agree. As well, opening up people to different regional tastes, even though this isn't like

particularly an established regional taste anywhere throughout Asia. It's not. It's a uniquely American product. It's a very, you know, it's a shibboleth of the American dream. I haven't heard the word shibboleth in like eight years. Yeah. I use it wrong all the time and I use it wrong right now and that's okay. Okay. That's why I was like, it's misplaced. It's a good example of like the American dream, right?

Dude comes with a kind of knockoff idea. He has an incredible story. Refugee from Vietnam. Yeah. You know, creates a knockoff of a knockoff, poisons a town, makes millions of dollars, kind of screws up, doesn't trademark anything, but it is incredibly successful anyways. And now we can buy Sriracha socks and urban outfitters and that's America, baby. I will link my husband's eBay store and you will see this and we'll sign it and we'll sell it. Maybe not sign it. Real quick. I want to get into something though. What are, what are Sriracha alternatives? Like what are other regional hot sauces that you think people might not know about

that you would recommend to them? I already said Sambal. So Sambal is like Indonesian, right? I don't know. Sambal is a term for, it's a blanket term for a lot of different Indonesian hot sauces. That's true.

David brought us one that was a lemongrass chili one. It was a lemongrass and shallot Sambal that knocked my life if you look it up it was like my first two weeks of working here or something and David was showing me

like kindness and he's like try this sambal and I'm like okay and it was one of the most delicious things I ever had yeah check out try and find different sambals

heck I mean if you're open to ordering on Amazon just go on Amazon and find stuff there's another one called ketchup sambal ketchup is a Hokkien word, by the way.

It's kind of an East Asian slang term. So ketchup means soy sauce in, I believe, Indonesian. But anyways, it's like a very sweet soy one. Calypso sauce from the Caribbean. Sure. We have a couple Trinidadian versions. Matuk's calypso sauce. That's the jam.

It's one of the best things I have ever had. There's like a spicy shrimp paste that I really like. Is it the Thai one? Is it the one that we have in our fridge right now? I think so. There's also like stinky tofu that's like spicy. Spicy stinky tofu is really good too. That's a fun time.

Not for the faint of heart. That's a fun time. Gochujang, of course. Korean fermented chili paste. I think Gochujang is kind of... Overrated? I think it's used incorrectly by the masses and that pisses

me off. Don't put Gochujang and mayonnaise I think taste really bad together. I don't understand why people do it, but you mix Gochujang with just like vinegar and a little bit of water. A little bit of water. Sugar. And then you like glaze meats in that or anything. Yeah. That's fantastic. Uh-huh. It's better. And then you like glaze meats in that or anything. That's fantastic.

That's fantastic. There's a wide world of hot sauce out there. Yeah. Go seek it out. You just gotta find it. You just gotta find it. All right, Nicole. We've heard what you and I have to say.

Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the universe. It's time for a segment we call... Opinions are like casserole! All right, so before we get into your opinions, we're going to do the classic segment that everybody loves, Review the Review, where we take a review from, what is it, Apple Podcasts or something, and we review it go review us if you want to be featured on review the review do i do a dance for this one yeah we're

gonna call it the all male review and you gotta dance like magic mike so nicole's gonna do that while i read this review from deb's five stars titled whoop whoop juggalo nation unite love love love this podcast so fun awesome topics and i love you nicole and josh you rock i definitely recommend for anyone who loves to laugh listening to this always makes my day cold fruit tea e.g raspberry is actually just juice that's not true at all anyway love you josh and nicole the raspberry tea is raspberry tea tea is an actual plant i can't remember the scientific name for it but it's a plant that is flavored with raspberry. You can stop dancing.

You can stop dancing. Okay, thanks. Do we auction off the sriracha now? Yeah, we're going to do it. And I was at the benefit of the sriracha for $100.

Susie got $100 for the sriracha. You and the blue overalls over there got $100. The sriracha $125. Look for $125. Women in the big yellow hat. You got $125.

$150. The sriracha's the biggest hot sauce in the world. $150. Sold! $125. The woman in the big hat. We're selling it on eBay

Oh That was really good There's a woman in a big hat here That just said she paid $125 That's the ghost of Mythical Kitchen I wanted to say one more thing About Sriracha Go ahead man

I'm sorry I'm sorry I do this Sometimes I forget And it's not that consequential Or anything But I just wanted to say it Interesting thing

When you use a less hot pepper Right So Sriracha is made using jalapenos Yeah OG is made using something Similar to a habanero When you use a less hot pepper, right? So sriracha is made using jalapenos. The OG is made using something similar to a habanero. When you use a less hot pepper, but you're still trying to get a very hot sauce, you end up getting more pepper pulp in there, which means more pepper flavor. And peppers tend to be bitter, right? Pepperskin.

So I think that's accounting for the difference in taste. And I get why some people wouldn't want that. And I generally like the flavor of chilies. I like that bitterness. But I had something the other day that was made with even a milder pepper, a Romano pepper. It was an Ajica, which is an Armenian pepper paste and spread. Okay. And I tasted that and I was like, this is bordering on too bitter for my personal palate.

Sometimes peppers can be bitter, yes. And so I understand why people might not like the sriracha. If you are used to a more nuclear chili pepper being used in your sauce where you're getting a lot more heat and a lot less of that bitterness. Thank you for sharing. Not consequential at all. Go check out Armenian Ajika. And I believe they make Ajika elsewhere as well.

Okay, time for our first opinion. Let's do it. Hey, Mythical Chef Nicole and Maggie I have a recipe here that I think you're actually going to like No, it's Mythical Chef Nicole and Maggie Oh So you're going to be taking a tortilla Flour, wheat, doesn't matter

And you're going to put peanut butter and strawberry jam All over that thing What makes it a little bit better is switching that up For the strawberry goober spread. Oh, no. That's good. I don't really care what anybody says. Ethically opposed. On top of the peanut butter and jam, you're going to be putting sweet chili Doritos. Yes. Crushed up. Hell yes. Finally, you're just going to fold the tortilla over like a crunch wrap, put in a skillet, seal both sides, and there you go. I don't know if that makes it an Uncrustable or a different type of Crunchwrap, but it's delicious.

Try it out. This is smart. So I was raised in a non-Goober household, but I would always see the jars and I would think they were the most incredible culinary invention ever. Yeah. So I'm glad that you have Goober. Did you ever actually try it, though? I've never tried it it's bad?

it's something about them being aromatized in the same environment for so long that I find bad I think the jelly somehow makes the peanut butter worse and the peanut butter somehow makes the jelly worse I think it has a net negative on both products I've never tried it so I don't know

but I would never put this in my mouth. Never ever. Never ever. Why? I think you know why. What do you mean? No, but I mean like

spicy sweet chili Doritos, I think they have enough. They're obviously modeled after a Thai palette. I doubt there's any actual like Thai ingredients in there. But you know,

it's spicy, it's sweet, it's got a lot of MSG in it. And I think mixing that spicy and jelly goes well together. You've had a, we ate a jalapeno strawberry jam in here together. We both enjoyed. I don't remember that. Spicy and peanut butter obviously goes really well together with a lot of

ground peanut based Thai dishes. I would just use classic tortilla chips. I don't know if I would do the Doritos. I think the texture of a Dorito makes it because it's a little bit lighter and a little bit crispier than your classic tortilla chip. No. You don't think so?

No. You've maddened Nicole. You've incensed her. I think this is really brilliant and I would like to try it. Why don't you do it on your own time? I feel like it might just be better on leavened bread than a tortilla.

I like the tortilla angle. I keep a lot of flour tortillas in my house. You know that a lot more than leavened bread. And the other day I really, I was about to work out. I wanted just like a lot of calories and carbs that I could go use as energy. And I wrapped a thing that I've done very often, wrap a banana and honey and peanut butter in a tortilla and eat it. And it was like so deeply unpleasant. Oh, really? Did you heat up the tortilla? It was just something. It was like the tortilla, I heated it up.

Oh, you did heat it up. But then you're putting cold ingredients inside it, so it just gets kind of like dense. And I found myself like suffering through this. I'm sorry. Whereas if it was on leavened bread, it's one of my favorite treats in the entire world. I bought some good bread the other day.

What kind? From Bay Cities. Oh, like a filone or like sliced bread? A filone. Yeah, nice little, it's like an Italian baguette. Yeah, that's good stuff. What's that girl on TikTok? Pinky doll.

Shout out to Pinky doll. Come on the show. I like when she yells at her kid in French. Arrêtez, arrêtez, s'il vous plaît. She goes like this. Ice cream. This is the ice cream so good. I love you so much.

Oh, ice cream so good? Ice cream so good. I love you so much. Oh, ice cream so good? Ice cream so good. Keep going. Keep going. The people are tipping you live, actually. Thank you. I love you so much. Yeah, gang gang.

Cowboy. Cowboy. Got me feeling like a queen. Gang gang. Gang gang. There it is. Yeah, we live in a dystopia. Oh, you got me feeling like a cowboy.

You ever think about that? If somebody just novelized the current time with any of this, it'd be viewed as a, quote, dystopian novel, right? And then you start thinking, how can any dystopian novel even be considered dystopian when we are currently living in a dystopia? I mean, we got hundreds of thousands of people living on the street in one of the most prosperous nations of all time.

We have people just selling their time and attention, acting like a literal non-person. The idea is that she's acting like a literal non-person. The idea is that she's acting like a non-person right now. That's the essence of dehumanization. Ice cream's so good. And I get it. People are like, she's out there paying her bills.

And I'm like, yeah, but we shouldn't have a system in which she needs to pay her bills doing that thing, right? And there's dignity in all work, of course, but. Ice cream's so good. Next opinion. Hi, this is Mike. I live in Michigan, home of Coney Dog's Detroit-style pizza and nothing else significant from a culinary

standpoint. So my opinion is more the opinion of someone I know, namely my brother-in-law, and he is a big fan of sardine and banana sandwiches hell yeah and you know the first time you get gross i told him about this or he told me about this um i told him that it sounded like something that a football player who had one too many concussions might eat uh however his wife

then came into his defense and said that she thought that it really wasn't all that weird. And I'm kind of torn here. You know, I'm curious to see what y'all think of this. Thanks so much. Love the pod. Love you guys. Everything you do is awesome. You're wonderful.

Oh, man. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a very serious disease. And I hope we can figure out how to negate it in football because I will not stop watching the sport. Stop playing football? Yeah, but I want to keep watching it because I really love it. I started to think about this. It's one of the only things I look forward to. Flag football. Flag football. It's not nearly as fun. Okay. I have an answer

for this. Please. Eat it with sriracha. The sriracha will make it better. Am I wrong? No, I agree with that. I actually think the fishiness and the neutral sweet could be really good if you married it with some sriracha. Sriracha has a causticness to it. It has a caustic taste.

You're caustic. I am caustic. Several people do not enjoy my company. But I do. Thank you. I think you're great. You know what I mean? There's something.

It's very grating. It's abrasive. We talked about that. And I think that marries the sweetness. That marries. It bridges any gap that is so far apart because it's just like oh my god kind of like bitter unpleasant incredibly spicy like i know it's not like the spiciest hot sauce but it's quite spicy um i think that would work this sounds to me like somebody from a remote part of like

lapland it sounds like a laplander where's lapland make it look up what lapland. It sounds like a Laplander. Where's Lapland? Maggie, look up what Lapland actually is. Like Scandinavia. It sounds like something from a remote part of Sweden who was just like, my mother made this all the time and then my grandmother made this. Finland. Yeah, Lapland is in Finland.

But like it sounds like something, like a cultural mistranslation of how one is supposed to use bananas. Like the Flying Johnny or whatever. What's that thing called? What's the Flying Johnny? The Swedish dish with the bananas. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What's in it? Bananas. They use tropical fruits in a very strange way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's strange to me, strange to my palate, not strange to y'all. But, you know, a lot of people around the world laugh at it sometimes. You know, you put the bananas on the pizza. You know, it's weird. I'm just going just gonna say it i'm gonna say that and so this sounds like that which again i do not personally love banana pizza nor do i think i would personally love this

sandwich flying jacob flying jacob what's in it it is uh chicken cream chili sauce bananas roasted peanuts and bacon unreal this is all that sandwich is. Again, a lot of incredible culinary traditions out of Scandinavia. Fish eggs in a tube. I love that. They did that? They have like

tubes of fish roe that you can just squirt on like a smother brood. I would like to brush my teeth with that. I agree with it. I agree entirely. Next, Unpinion.

Hey, lovelies. Hey. This is Claire from Washington. Hi, Claire. Adore your stuff Not so hot take And I know I'm preaching to the choir Nobody thinks you're cool

For your food taste If you drink your coffee Plack If you get your steak extra rare If you can handle Super spicy food Nobody thinks you're cool for that And for rare. Ooh. If you can handle super spicy food, nobody thinks you're cool for that.

And if you like all those things, cool. This guy. Like them for liking them. It's not going to impress anybody though.

Mm-hmm. I do like all those things, though. Same. Same, girl. We've been conditioned. Love you, bye. We live in a society. You know what? Something really interesting is about all those things. Same. Same, girl. We've been conditioned. Love you. Bye. We live in a society.

You know what? Something really interesting is about all three things she said. I was going to say toxic masculinity. Correct. No, 100%. Right. And I think we frame a lot of, we frame masculine good, feminine bad. Right.

Okay. I don't. I don't. Personally, I'm saying as like a society, right? That's something. You go to a bar. Not as much anymore. Hear me out. Hear me out. Hear like a society you go to a bar hear me out you as a woman lady

order an old fashioned I as a man order a Cosmo who is likely to get praised and who is likely to be made fun of for subverting the typical gender ideology I'm more likely to get crap for defying that gender norm. But I think you'll get more attention.

I'll get more attention. Boy, do I feed off of attention. I also don't really enjoy Cosmos. Yeah, you're not a Cosmo person. You're not a Cosmo guy. I'm not an old-fashioned lady. I get it. I'm not an old-fashioned lady.

But I'm saying that you would be like, oh, my God, girl can handle her whiskey. You know what I mean? You get that. You're not like other girls. Yeah. And so I think so much of our food tastes are wrapped around that. But I think we are now getting away from that into a point where we are more inclusive.

I love it. There's no moral judgment. With a drink. Yeah. You know what you eat, what you drink. It's neutral. It's merely a preference. Yeah.

It's a feel for your body. We're also, there was a tweet that went really viral of somebody saying, white people who go to an Indian restaurant and order butter chicken, garlic naan, and mango lassi has the same energy as the white people who go to a Mexican restaurant and get chips and salsa, enchiladas, and a margarita.

And it was meant to be a dig. They're very clear. That all sounds good. I know. And I mean, I knew exactly where they were coming from though, right? I've suffered from the opposite where I go to a Thai restaurant and I'm like, what's the weirdest thing they have? You know, I'm like, but like what region is this?

Is this from, this is from a region? You have a region? And I've had the opposite thing, which I would call the Bourdain effect. You know, I want to be seen as unique. I want to be seen as interesting. You know what I mean? And oftentimes I would, uh, I would suffer, you know, I would rather eat something else, but I felt the need to get quote unquote, the most interesting thing on the menu. Yeah. And it's not a personal value that I want to hold, but it's this, it's the same holdover for why I drink black coffee. Yeah. Yeah. FOMO. You're

like, I'm never going to see this. Let's just say jungle curry coffee. You have FOMO. Yeah. Yeah. FOMO. You're like, I'm never going to see this. Let's just say jungle curry again. I have to order it because this place gets the jungle curry. I do love a jungle curry though. I know you do. I know that's on the cover. They got like the whole green peppercorns in there. Yeah, you do love that. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, if you put a cup of coffee, a black cup of coffee in front of me versus a cup of coffee with a little bit of almond milk and creamer caramel macchiato creamer I'm gonna find myself drinking that one

more so than the black one it just tastes better just does taste better do you judge people for their order say in a coffee shop right there's how many old head white dude comedians have had a joke about like when I used to get coffee it was just called coffee now you

got your caramel frappe or whatever sure so many have jokes like that like do you judge people for their coffee orders because i still do and i hate that about myself no not anymore i'm i'm like life's too life's too serious to like care if someone got a macchiato like i don't care like someone's food preferences don't bother me like that anymore. It's not worth it. Life is too, life is too, I don't know, not serious,

but life is too beautiful and complex and busy and decision-making that if Joe Schmo gets a macchiato, but it's not his typical macchiato he gets from Starbucks, it's like a smaller macchiato,

like, that doesn't define him as a person. It's a drink he's drinking. Starbucks doesn't actually serve macchiatos sorry i blacked out i don't like this part of me i don't like this part of myself i'm sorry i know macchiato means stain right is that what it means macchiato or like a stain of milk whatever but i don't know i mean i used to be that person yeah Yeah. But the older I've gotten, the less I care. And I'm just like, you eat what you want and you enjoy. If you like black coffee, drink the black coffee.

Maybe pour a little bit of creamer in it so you're not pooping your pants. You know? You ain't got to poop your pants. Don't eat the steak rare if you don't like it. I agree. I think there's that wisdom of getting older where you realize that, oh, all these things that we cared about were these stupid gatekeeping ideals that literally held us back as people seeking pleasure and comfort. Absolutely.

Which is dumb. Did it with picky eaters. I love cooking. Julia has a very picky friend and, you know, a lot of people's food decisions, it does stem from things like anxiety and stuff like that. But I love cooking for her because they're like, I love cheese fries with bacon. Like, no other things on it. You know, don't want no green garnishes. If I see green, I'm gonna throw up. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I'm like, I'm gonna make the best freaking French fries you've ever had. You know, I'm gonna really do this up. And I love

being able to bring joy to people who may, like, have those limitations, right? Who aren't able to be in the quote-unquote cool kids club who are eating the most epicurean things i think there being a cool kids club for food is dumb yeah i'm over it i think though we are headed and we're going over time i don't care this is a great opinion um i think we are heading in a very strange direction where all the think about all the new restaurants in LA right now, which I know we talked about a lot of local stuff,

but LA is one of the markets that it, it sets the tone for what a lot of other markets end up doing. Right. You're welcome for Dave's hot chicken being in your hometown. Thanks Drake. But anyways, we are, I think people's palates are getting simpler and simpler and simpler,

which I don't think is a bad thing, but I think it's limiting the creativity of chefs and limiting pushing culture forward in a certain way. So many new restaurants, it's, it's red sauce Italian, it's French bistro, it's fried chicken, it's pizza, you know, it's, um, there's a great restaurant called Pija Palace. That's one of the most popular in LA. And they serve Indian owners and chefs. Yeah. But they serve quote unquote sports bar food. Yes. So all their food are Indian flavors, but it's all pasta, pizza, wings, burgers.

You know what I mean? And it's like very cool in one sense. But then in the other sense, it's like, man, are we only pasta, pizza, wings, and burgers now? Is that all society wants to eat? I don't think so. I think part of it's a COVID thing. Part of it's a return to comfort in a way. Maybe.

But I think there's also value in getting out of your comfort. Sure. There's value in trying new things. You know, other things. Yeah. I agree. Interesting topic. I could talk about that for a long time.

Find me at a party four beers deep, and I won't shut the hell up about that and then you will leave me. Happened recently. Sorry. No, it was great. Who was it? That's my ideal night. What?

Who was it? Oh, it was just like a random person. Random person who just like somebody brought up something about like flour tortillas and I'm just like, I'm about to do so it's like when an X-Men with a new power is like

everybody's got to get out because I can't control it that was like me I was like you might want to leave so in the early 1500s the Spaniards settled Sonoran Desert thanks so much for stopping by Mythical Kitchen and the Hot Dog is a Sandwich podcast a flagship production of Mythical Kitchen

flag we got new episodes of that podcast the one that you just listened to right now unless you Dog is a Sandwich podcast, a flagship production of Mythical Kitchen. Flag! We got new episodes of that podcast, the one that you just listened to right now. Unless you are starting the video backwards and you're playing it backwards to hear the satanic messages when you play it backwards, that's an obscure reference. Cranberry sauce.

If you know, you know. And if you want to be featured on Opinions Like Castros, give us a ring and leave a quick message at 833-DOGPOD1. So the new episodes, I didn't tell you, they come out on Wednesday, the audio versions. And then you got to wait all the way to Sunday. All the way to Sunday. All the way to Sunday.

And then you're going to get a video version. See these beautiful shiny faces. But there's also, we drop new Easter eggs in the video version. So you listen to the audio on Wednesday. And then on Sunday, you watch the video to try and find all the Easter eggs. And you got to watch the whole video. And also to find the Easter eggs, you have to comment, subscribe, and click the bell for notifications. There's no Easter eggs.

It's just to trick them. Okay. It's to trick because I'm not comfortable in our actual skills to hold an audience. So I try and trick them. For more Mythical Kitchen, check out our other videos. We launch new episodes every week. We will see you next time. It's the same way that we trick them

with the thumbnails when we go, ah! So it looks like the most exciting thing ever, but it's really, we just made like a pasta. We made like spaghetti. And we're like,

ah! But it's like, it's just really spaghetti. You know? You don't go, ah! It's like, if we were being honest,

it'd just be like, spaghetti.