sriracha, an all-american hot sauce

The New York Times ran a story today on the origins and increasing popularity of everybody's favorite Asian tabletop hot sauce, Sriracha, affectionately known by many as "rooster sauce" for the illustration of the squeeze-bottle packaging: A Chili Sauce to Crow About .

So where does rooster sauce come from? While many mistakenly assume the sauce originates from Thailand or Vietnam, it turns out the zesty red condiment, manufactured by Huy Fong Foods, is very much an American sauce, "a polygot puree with roots in different places and peoples."

Sriracha was created in Los Angeles in the early 1980s by David Tran, a Chinese immigrant from Vietnam, who developed it as his own take on a traditional Asian chili sauce. The rest is history. Today, it's everywhere, inspiring cooks, copycats and competitors. You won't find a pho shop without it.

Damn, now I'm hungry. Does anyone want to go eat some pho?