There was no update during lunch today as I was traveling to a meeting in Austin. At lunch I was probably sitting in a Schlotzkys eating a Turkey and Guacamole sandwich. Today I suppose I should share some notes on another love in my life. Hot Sauce. I’m not quite crazy enough to have an inedible collection of hot sauces, but I can share a thing or two about almost every sauce you’ll find in your local market and a few you’ll find only by special order.

Flavorful Sauces:

Tapatio is a rather salty and comparatively thin hot sauce. It’s in the same league as tabasco for heat but doesn’t share the vinegar taste. It has a tomato/pepper derived flavor and goes particularly well with quesadillas, beans, salads, and any jack, or queso fresco derived meals.

Valentina is much milder and slightly thicker. It goes well with shrimp, ceviche, and fresh seafood. It’s milder than Tapatio.

El Yucateco is a habanero based hot sauce that’s probably twice as hot as Tapatio or Tabasco. It’s not hot enough to justify handling with gloves but it certainly has a kick. It also communicates the habanero taste very well, without ruining the dining experience by melting your face. I use it for meats that need an extra kick. Usually pork, or sub prime cuts of beef.

Sriracha Sauce or more aptly named rooster sauce due to the rooster on it, is a vietnamese hot sauce that seems more derived from the very sweet traditions of asian cuisine. It goes well with other sweet items like orange chicken etc.

Dave’s insanity sauce. It’s probably 20 times as hot as tapatio at the least…. I’ll devote a special post to extract sauces later. Right now I’m just concerned with easily found and widely used salsas. This is not meant as an exhaustive list of your local grocer, though you’re likely to find all of these sauces in the asian, mexican, or foreign aisles of your grocery store.

Later on this week I’ll also share more about my favorite place for purchasing home made salsa online, The Pepper Lady. She has, by far, the best salsas and relishes known to man.

Tags: food,hot sauce,salsa
Categories: BJ, Entertainment
6 Comments »