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Comment by robomartin | Hacker News Reader

People who are not into hot sauces don't understand the idea that a hot sauce can actually have great flavor. In most cases they think it just burns. Huy Fong Sriracha is a great example of a great hot sauce with good flavor. At the extreme there's "Dave's Insanity", a sauce that is probably able to send you to the hospital yet, if used in moderation, has great flavor.

Tabasco? Really? Yuk. I can't understand why any self-respecting restaurant would even offer it.

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Yeah, I asked for hot sauce at a restaurant just today, for my chili. They ask "Would you like Tabasco or Texas Pete"? sigh

If I could start a restaurant, I think I'd start a dedicated chili place, and make it a point to stock about a zillion different kinds of hot-sauce for people to experiment with. :-)

At the extreme there's "Dave's Insanity", a sauce that is probably able to send you to the hospital yet, if used in moderation, has great flavor.

Dave's Insanity? Really? Uuuugghh... IMO, that shit is completely disgusting. You couldn't pay me to put it on my food. Horrible, horrible, disgusting flavor. Yeah, it's damn hot, but it tastes like shit.

However, on the topic of "hot sauces that taste good" the ABC brand "Sweet Hot Chili Sauce"[1] is insanely good. It's got a bit of kick to it, but tastes amazing.

[1]: http://www.abcsauces.com/hot-sweet-chili/

Texas Pete has it's place. Mostly on greens. It's better than most thin vinegar sauces due to the increased heat.

As worthless as Tabasco is as a hot sauce (very), I think it works decently as a ketchup replacement. On french-fries, chicken nuggets, that sort of thing.

Yeah it's not great on it's own but it's a great ingredient. It also makes ketchup quite a bit better the twice a year I want it on something.

I prefer Frank's Red Hot as a ketchup replacement. Tapatio or Cholula for Mexican food, and Sriracha for everything else.

I actually don't like ketchup, but I'll use Huy Fong Sriracha as a ketchup substitute. It's got the sugar like ketchup, but it has additional flavor than just your standard ketchup bland sweetness.

What I think Tabasco excels at is dishes that traditionally are served with vinegar. The best example I've had is greens, like spinach or collard or turnip.

The small Tabasco bottle that comes in some MREs make all the difference

Tabasco is for cajun food and southern soul food, like collard greens. Other forms of hot sauce would not work in this context.

I love tabasco on the right dish - eggs, gumbo, jambalaya, etc. The oaky taste can get old though. Sriracha has too much garlic and sugar for my tastes.

Agreed, Tabasco does not work with everything but there are some things that that it is great with. In my opinion, there is no hot sauce to rule them all.

Sriracha is fine and all, but sambal oelek, now, that's the good stuff.

Sambals in general are ridiculously tasty. I especially like the ones made with shrimp (belacan/shrimp paste), which are a standard condiment for sauteed vegetables here in my part of Asia. The combination of extremely rich savory and sweet tastes with the burn of chili is addictive and enlivens even the dullest food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belacan

I haven't tried Sriracha but will look out for it if it's in local supermarkets. I hear from Americans that it's basically crack in bottle form and they slather it on basically anything.

I haven't found genuine 'rooster sauce' in The Netherlands where I live, but have partaken of it multiple times while in the states. In Dutch Tokos I have found something called Tuong Ot Sriracha imported from Thailand and I cannot tell them apart. It's also a clear bottle with a red or green top made by Foodex.

I like Sambal Oelek as well, but for the past couple years I have been in love with Surinamese pickled mango chutney. It's great on pizza.

This is the stuff: http://www.surinaamsetoko.nl/data/upload/Shop/images/1656.pn...

I think Huy Fong's works for American food because it's jalapeno, which is a familiar flavor. It's blended with garlic, so it's not an unfamiliar flavor - somewhere between Chinese, Mexican, and Italian.

I don't know why you would want to chose one sauce over another. They all have their uses. You wouldn't use sambal in a Bloody Mary.

>You wouldn't use sambal in a Bloody Mary.

I wouldn't knock it until I tried it.

Why not? Chili, garlic.

I don't see the issue here.

All you need is two spoons of sambal on a plate of fried eggs and you are good to go my friend.

Tabasco is great on cheap pizza. I learned this in Japan where it's provided with almost all cheap pizza and it's pretty yummy.

(Japan also has some of the best pizza in the world BTW) ;-)

Ah, that brings back fond memories of tabehoudai (all-you-can-eat) at Shakey's Pizza back in my student days in Osaka. Always with the Tabasco, and eating all the pizza until there was nothing left but the weird corn-and-mayo one.

What is up with the corn on pizza in Japan? They call it "the American" at Pizza Hut... I found their idea of "American" to be very strange when I worked in Tokyo... like the boy band who dressed in soccer uniforms with football helmets and their name was "fuckers"! (Timeframe was early 90's) And advertised to little girls, with giant billboards around Toyko. Very strange.

Tabasco is good in certain, particular applications. For example, in the cocktail sauce that is often served with shrimp in the U.S.

Using it as a general purpose, "broad spectrum" hot sauce is a mistake.

Actually, the Tabasco brand has a habanero sauce that is not just habanero pepper but a combination of flavors, that I much prefer for more general use (when choosing from amongst their products). In addition to the balance of flavors, the "pepper" flavor of the habanero is much more enjoyable in it than is the pepper flavor, of itself, in their traditional Tabasco Sauce.

Always preferred Frank's RedHot to Tabasco. Also I never considered Sriracha and Tabasco to be in the same category. I generally divide my hot sauces between south american and asian.

Yeah, I keep both Sriracha and Tapatío in stock myself, but consider them to have pretty different uses.

Tabasco is really good with simmered vegetables. The vinegar and aged flavors brighten up and fill out the flavors.

I prefer Louisiana hot sauce over Tabasco, but if your looking for flavor I would go for Gochujang or Harissa.

Yeah, Tabasco and Frank's both taste like grass. They're disgusting =-(

Sriracha and Sambal Oelek are the good ones!

hey I like Tabasco... de gustibus...

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