You’ll have to forgive me for the late wish on this most auspicious of celebrations since I didn’t actually even know it existed until just a little while earlier this morning. With that said, I wanted to wish you all a very “Happy National Hot Sauce Day”. Isn’t it funny how everything seems to have a holiday of its own nowadays? I don’t mind this one since its more playful than anything else and helps support those concoctions that help set aflame the most fiery of palates. In honor of the occasion I’ve lined up some of my favorite flavors of hot sauce. All of the ones in the photo right below are the High River Sauces stuff. Some of these are hotter than the others but there is such flavor to them all which is a bonus.
The next group are some other favorites and ones that I had gotten my hands on during one of the NYC Hot Sauce Expos over the years and still need to crack open for use. When I went down south to see my family I was surprised to see my Dad putting the original Tabasco brand on everything since he was never really the biggest spice fan. It made me smile.
These next three are a little bit of a mixed bag. Salsa by nature is not really a hot sauce but I do love my local stores brand. I put it on a lot of stuff when I don’t feel like reaching for the heavier hitters that you see above. Then there is the Sriracha that Tabasco made. It’s actually pretty good even though I usually purchase the Huy Fong Foods brand like you would find in the Asian restaurants. I got this one at the Hot Sauce Expo and its timing was perfect since my store was out of the other kind and I could not go without it based on recipe needs. My fridge also has a popular standard with the Franks Red Hot. I find this is a good beginners sauce in this configuration. They now make a hotter one but I haven’t tried it yet.
These next two are just to add some more fun to the mix. We have a local Taco Bell which is good since I crave the stuff every now and again. When it comes to their fare I love loading it up with their own signature hot sauce and they most recently added little slogans to their packages. The thing is, I love my selections saucy and you’ll need a dozen or so of these if you have the same culinary designs. They have a super hot one called Fire which is too much for me and the Mild which is simply “meh”.
While we are on the topic of the fast food side, we also recently found the Panda Express opening up and I tried them the other day for my Foodspotting and Yelp! postings. When I asked for hot sauce they gave me several packets of their Chili Sauce. I must say that it has some kick and should be tried if you are in the place for anything to eat.
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you probably know that we’ve been attending the Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo since it first began. At first I ran the articles about it on PiercingMetal which you can see HERE but as time went on it became more of the thing for The Chronicles and my overviews from that time on can be examined HERE. Mind you that some event listings will show up in the rundown but you can scroll by them easy enough to see the good stuff. Before I close up let me stress that if you enjoy these elixirs and can easily access the event, you SHOULD head over to this years NYC Hot Sauce Expo. It’s going to be back at the Brooklyn Expo Center this coming April and there are a few cool options to choose from HERE. I am hoping to go there for the Saturday session based on some friends who are visiting from abroad and I look forward to seeing some of you there as well.
Official Website: http://www.natlhotsauceday.com/