Sriracha is really interesting to me. I don't know when exactly it became what it is today but I remember always getting it at the takeout Chinese places in the late 90s, referring to it as rooster sauce (occasionally cock sauce, for those excessively juvenile times).

Everyone I knew already knew what it was and nearly everyone liked it but, for reasons completely unknown to me, one day it made it's way out of those cheap Chinese restaurants and into the mainstream. It's still a mystery to me.

The only explanation I really have is that I grew up in the LA metro area and, I'm pretty sure, it's manufactured there. Perhaps it was ubiquitous locally and the popularity has to do with them expanding their footprint.