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News & ArtsSaturday, May 12, 2012
Chow Dear Restaurants Who Carry Tabasco as Your Only Hot Sauce
Posted by Grant Brissey on Sat, May 12, 2012 at 11:05 AM
You're doing it wrong. Tabasco's most substantial quality is that it is made in the United States of America. Otherwise, it's a bland and tired way to spice your meal. You need to also carry, at the very least, the superior-in-every-way Tapatío sauce—it's also made in the United States of America, has a fuller flavor, and is a bargain anywhere it's sold. What's more, it's made in the West, and we all know the West is the Best.
4
Tapatio is not vinegar-based, Tabasco's biggest draw for me.
Apple stores, you're doing it wrong...you need to carry oranges.
Apple stores, you're doing it wrong...you need to carry oranges.
5
I would love to choose between Tapatio, Frank's wing sauce, Sriracha, HP sauce, and any of the Búfalo brands everywhere I go.
7
Neener neener. Brissey loses the interwebs!
I will also note that the comments section contains a good deal of thought on the matter, as well as Baconcat's now world-famous Green and Red recipes.
You people with your internet-destroyed memories. Snort.
I will also note that the comments section contains a good deal of thought on the matter, as well as Baconcat's now world-famous Green and Red recipes.
You people with your internet-destroyed memories. Snort.
10
And while you're at it restaurants, ROTATE THE DAMN BOTTLES! Once opened, hot sauces tend to lose their flavor rather quickly (while retaining their heat), so bottles sitting on tables for weeks on-end become as useless as a condiment as a free Planed Parenthood health screening coupon in a Republican's mailbox.
14
Good Afternoon Grant,
I like Tabasco (named after a state in Mexico where the peppers are grown) sauce. I once gave it to a friend who relocated to Germany. Probably hard to get there. Indeed, it is made in the USA (Louisiana). But, that's just one of it's charms. I like the small bottle design and it has a few varieties in taste (jalepeno, habenero etc).
There are other locally made sauces that I enjoy. One can get them at fairs here. But, I do like the original Tabasco.
I like Tabasco (named after a state in Mexico where the peppers are grown) sauce. I once gave it to a friend who relocated to Germany. Probably hard to get there. Indeed, it is made in the USA (Louisiana). But, that's just one of it's charms. I like the small bottle design and it has a few varieties in taste (jalepeno, habenero etc).
There are other locally made sauces that I enjoy. One can get them at fairs here. But, I do like the original Tabasco.
16
Yes Tapatio is superior to red Tabasco, but green Tabasco is superior to Tapatio. However, I would like an option of a hot sauce that sits higher on the Scoville scale. One of the highlights of Thai food is the spice tray.
17
Thank you.
At least have the decency to carry tapitio.
And if you aren't a total shit hole in the wall restaurant, I expect some cholula, goddammit.
And while we're at it, can we get some of that secret aardvark sauce that's in every restaurant in Portland exported up here... That shit is delicious.
At least have the decency to carry tapitio.
And if you aren't a total shit hole in the wall restaurant, I expect some cholula, goddammit.
And while we're at it, can we get some of that secret aardvark sauce that's in every restaurant in Portland exported up here... That shit is delicious.
20
I like Cholula best of the ordinary hot sauces. Good resilient flavor and reminds me of an evening I once spent at a rather random gay disco in Cholula.
21
Different sauces for different purposes. Yay for all of these for one thing or another:
Tabasco (Heat without changing the flavor of a dish.)
Tapatio (Mmm... Mexican!)
Franks (Good basic sauce for marinating wings.)
Huy Fong Sriracha (Hot, garlicky goodness)
El Yucateco Kutbil-Ik (For impressing your friends.)
Tabasco (Heat without changing the flavor of a dish.)
Tapatio (Mmm... Mexican!)
Franks (Good basic sauce for marinating wings.)
Huy Fong Sriracha (Hot, garlicky goodness)
El Yucateco Kutbil-Ik (For impressing your friends.)
22
It wasn't too long ago that for most Americans, coffee was either crystals you melted in boiling water, or industrial-grade black stuff made in a big machine. Now we know different. America is still in the dark ages when it comes to hot sauce. They think it's Tabasco & that's it.
Don't get me wrong, Grant, I love me some Tapatio. But the nuance to the flavor of hot peppers is amazing. The only thing wrong is to look for one sauce that will do it all. Sometimes I want Tabasco, it's like firecrackers. Sometimes I want Sriracha, which is more like a slow-burning oak log. I love discovering new sauces, just to see how they measure up. I know America is slowly waking up to the fact that there's more than one kind of way to excite your tongue.
Don't get me wrong, Grant, I love me some Tapatio. But the nuance to the flavor of hot peppers is amazing. The only thing wrong is to look for one sauce that will do it all. Sometimes I want Tabasco, it's like firecrackers. Sometimes I want Sriracha, which is more like a slow-burning oak log. I love discovering new sauces, just to see how they measure up. I know America is slowly waking up to the fact that there's more than one kind of way to excite your tongue.
24
Plain old Tabasco is rather bleh.
But Tobasco Chipotle sauce, now that's where it's at.
But for flavor and heat, nothing beats Melinda's Extra Hot Habanero sauce (stocked at PCC). (Slather it on your Amy's vegan breakfast burritos -- not just for breakfast!).
Sadly I haven't found a quality organic habanero hot sauce yet.
But Tobasco Chipotle sauce, now that's where it's at.
But for flavor and heat, nothing beats Melinda's Extra Hot Habanero sauce (stocked at PCC). (Slather it on your Amy's vegan breakfast burritos -- not just for breakfast!).
Sadly I haven't found a quality organic habanero hot sauce yet.
25
Tabasco, with its insipid vinegar tang, is not a Mexican hot sauce. It's really only good on American foods like barbecue, hash browns, etc. (And no, neither the peppers or anything else about the sauce have anything to do with the Mexican state of Tabasco.)
Tapatio is a good Mexican-style sauce, the best basic table salsa to my mind, and adds a little heat without messing with the other flavors too much. Sriracha is godlike in Asian and many American foods but much less successful in Mexican cooking.
I don't like Cholula that much, but then I mostly like Yucatan-style habanero salsas -- not for the heat, which you get used to, but for the incredible mile-deep sweet-smoky-vegetal flavor. My favorite habanero salsa is probably El Yucateco green, but Marie Sharp's salsas, Yucatan Sunshine, Melinda's, and a number of others, are terrific as well.
The best stuff I ever had in my life was the house green salsa at a fairly mediocre shrimp restaurant in Playa del Carmen, which was ABSOLUTELY MIND-BLOWING (and really hot). Basically just pure ground green habanero peppers. I was able to bring a bottle of it home but it is long gone; if I want more I have to go back there.
Interestingly Tabasco makes a really, really good habanero salsa even though I don't like their red or green (jalapenos are yucky).
All salsas with "Satan", "Diablo", "Xtreme", "Hell", "Insanity" etc. in the name are complete bullshit for showoffs with no tastebuds. I'm looking at you, Dave's.
Tapatio is a good Mexican-style sauce, the best basic table salsa to my mind, and adds a little heat without messing with the other flavors too much. Sriracha is godlike in Asian and many American foods but much less successful in Mexican cooking.
I don't like Cholula that much, but then I mostly like Yucatan-style habanero salsas -- not for the heat, which you get used to, but for the incredible mile-deep sweet-smoky-vegetal flavor. My favorite habanero salsa is probably El Yucateco green, but Marie Sharp's salsas, Yucatan Sunshine, Melinda's, and a number of others, are terrific as well.
The best stuff I ever had in my life was the house green salsa at a fairly mediocre shrimp restaurant in Playa del Carmen, which was ABSOLUTELY MIND-BLOWING (and really hot). Basically just pure ground green habanero peppers. I was able to bring a bottle of it home but it is long gone; if I want more I have to go back there.
Interestingly Tabasco makes a really, really good habanero salsa even though I don't like their red or green (jalapenos are yucky).
All salsas with "Satan", "Diablo", "Xtreme", "Hell", "Insanity" etc. in the name are complete bullshit for showoffs with no tastebuds. I'm looking at you, Dave's.
27
Kutbil-ik for steak, cause it has the right amount of heat. Tamazula black label for everything else. Why? Because it is made in Jalisco, Mexico, like so many good things.
28
Tabasco - the original variety - has its place. I don't use anything else on my collards, catfish, or eggs, and I consider it essential to have in the kitchen. (The other Tabasco-brand varieties are laboratory concoctions of additives and gums not worth anyone's time. The original is just peppers, vinegars, and salt, aged in oak barrels.)
Don't hate on Tabasco. Tapatio and Cholula are dullsville, btw. Get a bottle of Marie Sharps (a carrot-habanero sauce from Belize) and you won't go back to them.
Don't hate on Tabasco. Tapatio and Cholula are dullsville, btw. Get a bottle of Marie Sharps (a carrot-habanero sauce from Belize) and you won't go back to them.
29
Original, red Tabasco is fantastic. The spinoffs are poisonous, and really cheapen the brand.
Tapatio & Cholula - bleh.
Chiracha/rooster sauce is useless. Sorry, it's awful.
Better than all of these is the Brazilian concoction made by jamming a zillion teeny Malagueta peppers into a bottle, throwing in vinegar to fill the bottle, then aging it. The stuff that results just kicks ass. Too bad this stuff is impossible to get outside of Brazil... Anybody have a source?
Tapatio & Cholula - bleh.
Chiracha/rooster sauce is useless. Sorry, it's awful.
Better than all of these is the Brazilian concoction made by jamming a zillion teeny Malagueta peppers into a bottle, throwing in vinegar to fill the bottle, then aging it. The stuff that results just kicks ass. Too bad this stuff is impossible to get outside of Brazil... Anybody have a source?
30
@25,
Yeah, that whole market for stupid & ridiculously fucking hot sauces is idiotic, but apparently thriving given how many of them are out there. In David's previous post on the same topic I mentioned Secret Aardvark and it really is something you all should check into (made down here in Portland, though I'm pretty sure its available up there at Whole Foods & elsewhere.)
Yeah, that whole market for stupid & ridiculously fucking hot sauces is idiotic, but apparently thriving given how many of them are out there. In David's previous post on the same topic I mentioned Secret Aardvark and it really is something you all should check into (made down here in Portland, though I'm pretty sure its available up there at Whole Foods & elsewhere.)
31
@30, et al
Plus, only one ridiculously hot, hot sauce deserves to exist, for it is the most ridiculous of all - "The Man" (Dixies in Bellevue).
I think they're stupid as well, but the guy there only ever makes a small pot of it, and it's a fun little show when someone tries it for the 1st time (he makes quite the production out of it).
I had a toothpick dipped in it breeze by my tongue and I thought I was going to die. I'll never have it again, but I'm glad for the experience (and at 1 part per million or less, I bet it tastes good in stuff...)
Plus, only one ridiculously hot, hot sauce deserves to exist, for it is the most ridiculous of all - "The Man" (Dixies in Bellevue).
I think they're stupid as well, but the guy there only ever makes a small pot of it, and it's a fun little show when someone tries it for the 1st time (he makes quite the production out of it).
I had a toothpick dipped in it breeze by my tongue and I thought I was going to die. I'll never have it again, but I'm glad for the experience (and at 1 part per million or less, I bet it tastes good in stuff...)
35
@25
El Yucateco FTW
Fnarf nailed it, quite the diatribe for hots sauce but 100% correct
Now how long to Will in Seattle comes to spout off some thing about hotsauce identification chips having something to do with the republican party and that is why you can only use Tabasco on scrambled egg burritos in Fremont.
El Yucateco FTW
Fnarf nailed it, quite the diatribe for hots sauce but 100% correct
Now how long to Will in Seattle comes to spout off some thing about hotsauce identification chips having something to do with the republican party and that is why you can only use Tabasco on scrambled egg burritos in Fremont.
38
On a semi-related note, couple years ago my brother's at a bar with some friends who started the whole I'll throw $20 at anyone who can drink an entire bottle of tabasco challenge. Eventually it got rich enough that my brother decided to go ahead and do it (well over $100, as I recall.) He said the next day he woke up & went to try to take a shit, but it was so incredibly painful that he had to stop mid-way through and climb into the shower to finish it there.
39
@38 Make sure you eat a tub of ice cream immediately afterwards. You'll have something to look forward to at the end of the 'movement.'
40
@25, vinegar-based Louisiana hot sauces are "insipid" because they aren't Mexican hot sauces? That's silly.
41
I live on $10 gallon jugs of Tapatio from Cash & Carry. I love Secret Aardvark too, but at almost $5 per 8 oz. bottle, I can't justify buying it all the time. It's so tasty I use the whole thing in about a week.
A bit ago I was hanging out with some Michigan transplants and they had a great sauce from Ann Arbor. It was in a glass bottle, had a funny name, and reminded me of Chipotle Tabasco but with way more kick. Anyone know the one I'm talking about. I'd live to order some over the internet.
A bit ago I was hanging out with some Michigan transplants and they had a great sauce from Ann Arbor. It was in a glass bottle, had a funny name, and reminded me of Chipotle Tabasco but with way more kick. Anyone know the one I'm talking about. I'd live to order some over the internet.
43
Grant is so right on this! Many are awesome but Tapatio is common enough that it's cheap and easy to find/stock. Tabasco is all vinager, fine if that's your thing but it doesn't compliment many flavors. Sriracha is delicious but so full of sugar that I usually just hold it for a few minutes in the store then put it back.
44
Tabasco sauce is for Cajun food. (Well, that and eggs. And soup. ) Tapatio is for Mexican food.
I hope Grant isn't complaining about the lack of Tapatio at a non-Mexican restaurant.
I hope Grant isn't complaining about the lack of Tapatio at a non-Mexican restaurant.
45
Big ups to #27 for the Tamazula shout out. It's replaced Cholula (which replaced Tapatio) as my go-to cheap Mexican-style hot sauce.
Tabasco has its place. I like it on hash browns, because it's got lots of tangy vinegar to cancel out the sweetness of ketchup. It's a little bit of acidity and some heat, that's it. It's the king of boring. Which is great when you want boring (such as when you're sobering up at 12:30pm and eating a plate of shitty potatoes at a nowhere diner). Not so great if you're trying to add some character to bland tacos.
Tabasco has its place. I like it on hash browns, because it's got lots of tangy vinegar to cancel out the sweetness of ketchup. It's a little bit of acidity and some heat, that's it. It's the king of boring. Which is great when you want boring (such as when you're sobering up at 12:30pm and eating a plate of shitty potatoes at a nowhere diner). Not so great if you're trying to add some character to bland tacos.
46
Stop shopping at Walmart and Costco, stop going to restaurants that use mass produced chemical crap.
48
Vinegar-based pepper sauces are different than Mexican hot sauces. Apples and oranges. Of mass-market Louisiana vinegar-based pepper sauces, I do prefer Crystal to Tabasco, but there are obviously other good ones.
49
Also, I actually notice the opposite problem: going out for breakfast, too many places ONLY stock Mexican hot sauces and don't have ANY Louisiana-style sauces, which work better on breakfast foods, to me anyway...
51
Fnarf, @46 grows his/her own peppers in a community garden in Portland, and once a year walks there from Seattle barefoot to harvest the peppers and create a homemade pepper sauce which he/she carries loose in his/her pocket, as glass is a mass-produced commodity that compromises the integrity of the sauce. Unfortunately, it's only good on kelp.
52
Tabasco is the best general purpose hot sauce.
I wish more mexican restaurants would carry it. I find the ones they seem to have available bland and flavorless.
As stated above...it must by the vinegar in tabasco sauce that makes the difference.
I wish more mexican restaurants would carry it. I find the ones they seem to have available bland and flavorless.
As stated above...it must by the vinegar in tabasco sauce that makes the difference.
55
Buffalo chipotle sauce is my go to hot sauce for eggs and adding some zest to beans but Pickapeppa is under appreciated. Big Time on the Ave has Pickapeppa and I got used to putting it on margarita pizza there.
56
El Yucataco or Marie Sharp's are the best, IMHO. Both have a nice kick and plenty of flavor. Marie Sharp's grapefruit habanero sauce on fish tacos - yum.
57
No one has mentioned Huy Fong's Sambal Oelek, which makes every single one of you WRONG WRONG WRONG.
http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/oelek.h…
http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/oelek.h…
58
I love pickapeppa, but can't figure out what to put it on except under-flavored chicken (though I have dabbed it on a spoon just so I can have a taste when I haven’t had an appropriate carrier.)
Tiger sauce is great with cornbread.
I find Cholula to work on more food than tabasco, so if a restaurant is going to pick only one go-to sauce, I prefer it when they opt for Mexican over Cajun. I know a guy who carries his own hot sauce with him everywhere; he doesn’t care for matching the flavor.
I agree that restaurants should have a selection of spicy sauces – and maybe in a roving basket instead of assigned to the tables, so that they don't expire before they can be used.
Tiger sauce is great with cornbread.
I find Cholula to work on more food than tabasco, so if a restaurant is going to pick only one go-to sauce, I prefer it when they opt for Mexican over Cajun. I know a guy who carries his own hot sauce with him everywhere; he doesn’t care for matching the flavor.
I agree that restaurants should have a selection of spicy sauces – and maybe in a roving basket instead of assigned to the tables, so that they don't expire before they can be used.
59
I don't know anything about hot sauce but what I like, and that's Huy Fong chili garlic sauce, on almost everything, and especially on hash browns. I eat way too much, spoonfuls of it, but I love it.
60
LOL at the people who totally misunderstood and approached the question as if "Mexican" food was the point of this and somehow associated mexican food with hot sauce greatness let alone mexican food. E.g. - "Tabasco is only good on American food." gasp!
62
Thank you, SLOG, for so hilariously demonstrating to the world that the self-appointed food-sophisticates of Seattle are utterly oblivious to the fact that "vinegar" and "acetic acid" are, for all industrial-food-production purposes, perfect synonyms.
Christ, what a pack of insufferable know-nothings.
Christ, what a pack of insufferable know-nothings.
63
made in america - the scoville food isntitute makes great hot sauces. sold in more than 100 whiole foods markets, these rock!
64
also made in america - the scoville food institute makes great hot sauces. sold in more than 100 whiole foods markets, these rock!
65
@62, what are you talking about? Are you saying Mexican-style sauces and Louisiana-style pepper sauces are the same thing? Oh, and who are the people who suck so much compared to you? Which posts ought I disdain? Thanks in advance.
66
Tapatío contains xanthan gum and sodium benzoate. Tabasco isn't filled with this garbage. And anyone who doesn't like vinegar has no business commenting on food. Also, good luck finding out what species and variety of chili is used in Tapatío.
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