Sriracha facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Sriracha |
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Horseshoe crab served with Sriracha sauce in the town of Si Racha
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| Heat |  Medium |
| Scoville scale | 1,000–2,500 SHU |
Sriracha (/sɪˈrætʃə/ sih-RATCH-ə or /sɪˈrɑːtʃə/ sih-RAH-chə; Thai: ศรีราชา, pronounced [sǐː.rāː.tɕʰāː]) is a type of hot sauce or chili sauce made from a paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt.
Use
In Thailand, sriracha is frequently used as a dipping sauce, particularly for seafood and omelets. In Vietnamese cuisine, sriracha appears as a condiment for phở and fried noodles, as a topping for spring rolls (chả giò), and in sauces.
Sriracha is also eaten in soup, on eggs and burgers. Jams, lollipops, and cocktails have all been made using the sauce, and sriracha-flavored potato chips have been marketed.
Origin
The sauce was first produced by a Thai woman named Thanom Chakkapak in the town of Si Racha (or Sriracha), Thailand.
Variations
Thailand
In Thailand, the sauce is most often called sot Siracha (Thai: ซอสศรีราชา) and only sometimes nam phrik Siracha (Thai: น้ำพริกศรีราชา). Traditional Thai sriracha sauce tends to be tangier in taste, and runnier in texture than non-Thai versions.
In a Bon Appétit magazine interview, US Asian-foods distributor Eastland Food Corporation asserted that the Thai brand of hot sauce Sriraja Panich, which Eastland distributes, is the original "sriracha sauce" and was created in Si Racha, Thailand, in the 1930s from the recipe of a housewife named Thanom Chakkapak.
United States
In the United States, sriracha is associated with a sauce produced by Huy Fong Foods and is sometimes referred to as "rooster sauce" or "cock sauce" from the image of a rooster on the bottle. Other variations of sriracha have appeared in the US market, including a sriracha that is aged in whiskey barrels. The Huy Fong Foods Sriracha was first produced in the early 1980s for dishes served at American phở restaurants.
Various restaurants in the US, including Wendy's, Applebee's, P.F. Chang's, Jack in the Box, McDonald's, Subway, Taco Bell, White Castle, Gordon Biersch, Chick-fil-A, Firehouse Subs, Noodles & Company, Starbucks, and Burger King have incorporated sriracha into their dishes, sometimes mixing it with mayonnaise or into dipping sauces. Blue Diamond, a leading producer of almond products, markets a sriracha flavor alongside their other flavors. The word "sriracha" is considered a generic term.
In popular culture
- In 2013, American filmmaker Griffin Hammond released Sriracha, a documentary about the origin and production of sriracha sauce.
See also
In Spanish: Sriracha para niños
