Huy Fong also makes aChili Garlic Sauce that I prefer to the sriracha.
About the same degree of hotness, maybe slightly hotter and the garlic isn’t overpowering.
They also make Sambal Oelek which is just chilis and also tasty.
Get a bottle of each!
See, this is my only problem with it. For decades my preferred way to eat fries is to mix a crapload of Tabasco into the ketchup (more recently this keeps my kids from bogarting my ketchup). It doesn’t work with any other hot sauce I’ve tried, definitely not Sriracha and ferchrissakes not Texas Pete. Now that Sriracha and Texas Pete are the main hot sauces at restaurants around me, I don’t get my fix so often.
Otherwise I like Sriracha a lot. My favorite use is to mix it into the mayo of a club sandwich.
It ain’t Mexican.
Mexican: ish. It’s a hot pepper sauce. Don’t like it, go cry to your mommy.
US South: vinegar. It’ll bite your ass if it’s strong. Good for egg, hashbrowns & whatnot. Clam chowder, “Buffalo” wings. Generally roadkill & whatever you caught in your backyard, & fried.
Sriracha/Asian: Those people just mix and mix and mix and come up with flavors that don’t belong on anything they didn’t make. Burn yo ass too. Only for Asian food.
Sriracha at Taco Bell? That’s just the most awfullest thing I can imagine. Well, maybe cappuccino potato chips.
I know it ain’t Mexican. It’s only for Asian food? Burn yo ass? Do you know what El Yucateco is? It’s Mexican habanero hot sauce- that’s burn yo mouth, at least, that’s where I put my hot sauce.
Thanks for, I guess, trying to help.
You might also want to try the Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce.
EDIT: I see it’s already been mentioned above in post #21
Sriracha is pretty mild compared to most of the El Yucateco sauces. I mean, it’s got a kick, but if you’re using that as a scale, you’ll find it medium hot at most.
Yes, it’s very likely that Huy Fong Foods would not be able to assert exclusive trademarks rights over the term “Sriracha” because it’s generic, referring to the city of Si Racha in Thailand. It would be akin to asserting trademark rights in “Prosciutto di Parma.”
Furthermore:
It’s odd to say that he “refused” to claim exclusive rights, as if someone tries to force him to.
It’s misleading to use “trademark” as a verb in this way: “he refused to trademark X” because it implies that trademark rights are created through a single, discrete act.
That’s not how it works. Trademark rights are earned through use in commerce as an indicator of the origin of goods or services.
While it’s true that some Asian sauces work best on Asian foods, sriracha works well on darned near everything.
it adds heat and flavor without being overpowering like other hot sauces which are heavily vinegared.
I’ve mixed it with ketchup, mayo and pickle relish to create a cocktail sauce for shrimp. Very tasty.
I’ll second Sambal Oelek. Good stuff.
Actually, I figured that was the case as soon as I took the first bite. Sriracha (at least Huy Fong brand) can taste different from bottle to bottle and what you put it on*, but I’d be surprised if Taco Bell was using the brand name version. Or, if they were, you’d think they’d use the brand name or logo in the marketing (they do with everything else, Starburst, Fritos, Doritos, Cinnabon and the place is practically wallpapered with Mt Dew logos)
*I’ve found, like most spicy things, it’s ‘cooler’ on cold things. That is, I can squirt it on to a cold sandwich like it’s ketchup, but I have to use a lot less on a hot dish/pizza. Also, when I eat it on something cold, like a sandwich, since the heat isn’t as present, a lot more of the (garlic) flavor comes through.
I have only two host sauces. Sri Racha goes on pretty much anything: italian subs, pizza, egg mcmuffins…awesome. Buy a bottle.
My other sauce, el yucateko green. Much hotter, totally different flavor.
Doesn’t seem odd to me. Certainly no one has attempted to force him to do anything, but he has been advised to seek protection many times, going back years.
So essentially, yes, he has refused to take any further action toward seeking trademark protection.
I didn’t see this comment before, they have a Sriracha Quesarito. Which is just a regular Quesarito with Sriracha added in to all the spots where there’s cheese…or rather I think it might be some kind of Sriracha cheese sauce mixture.
Oh and looking at the Taco Bell site, they do say it’s their own sriracha sauce. Whether it’s a ‘off brand’ (name brand, but not Huy Fong), someone’s making it for them or they actually own their own facility, I have no idea. I would guess that if they use actual chilis in their hot sauces, it wouldn’t be that big of a leap for who ever makes those to make the sriracha as well.
This.
I have different hot sauces for different kinds of food. I still use Mexican hot sauce on Mexican food Louisiana-style hot sauces (only chiles, salt, and vinegar) on American food, and so on. I used to use Huy Fong Sriracha exclusively on Asian food. Thanks to Chefguy, I’ve found it’s good mixed with peanut butter on hot dogs. It’s good on hot dogs without peanut butter. It’s good mixed with mayo on a breaded chicken filet wrapped in a corn tortilla. It’s very versatile.
Sriracha isn’t so hot that you can’t use a lot of it. For example, you can cover the top of bibimbap and still taste the rest of the dish. It’s not for competing; it’s for eating. Personally, I like Trader Joe’s version; though I know a lot of people don’t. I prefer Huy Fong because I like things a little hotter.
The Aw Shucks vibe doesn’t hold water with me. The green bottle cap design and the rooster logo has been trademarked ever since they started making it industrially. It’s likely they consulted with a lawyer who advised them what was and was not trademarkable and now, 25 years later, it’s being spun into a homestyle allegory for PR value.
Minor nit: El Yucoteco.
Otherwise: yes. I do the same thing. “Host sauces” - yes, they are the ones I keep on hand.
I basically use sriracha as Better Ketchup.
Almost. El Yucateco.
Might be a local thing, but around here it’s Cock Sauce.
What have they advised him to do? “Seek protection” has no specific meaning in trademark law.
He has at least two obvious trademarks, the rooster logo (which is registered and is prominently marked as such) and the trade name “Huy Fong Foods.”
As for his “refusing” to take any action with respect to the term “Sriracha,” by itself, it likely has nothing to do with obstinacy or some kind of marketing wizardry, but simply that it’s not a trademark.
The word “trademarked” as you use it in this sentence is ambiguous and probably based on a misunderstanding of trademark law.
The accurate term is “registered,” and the number one rule about registration is that you can only register something that is already your trademark.
(You can file an "intent to use"application, but it’s the actual use that gives you the rights, not the piece of paper from the Patent and Trademark Office. If you fail to show proof of use as a trademark within a certain period of time, your registration will be dead.)
Indeed, Huy Fong Foods currently has nine live registrations with the PTO:
In each of these cases, the terms “Tuong ot Toi Viet-Nam,” “Viet-Nam Chili Garlic Sauce,” “Tuong ot Sriracha,” “Sriracha Chili Sauce,” and “Tia Chieu Sa-Te” are disclaimed.
Such disclaimers happen when the registrant knows that the registration would otherwise be rejected.
And such knowledge is almost always acquired when a trademark examiner tells the registrant “I’m going to reject your registration unless you disclaim these, because you can’t claim them as your trademarks.”
And there are several dead registrations:
“The California Red Chili Sauce” (cancelled)
The design of a bottle with colored cap (abandoned)
“The California Red” (cancelled)
“The California Green” (cancelled)
So the idea that Huy Fong Foods has “refused” to exercise its trademark rights is pretty much hooey.
And the idea that Huy Fong Foods could have exercised exclusive rights over the term “Sriracha” by itself is also quite dubious.
