Another Best Friend in My Kitchen : Sri Racha Chilli Sauce

I grew up with Thai chilli sauce which we call Sri Racha Sauce because legend has it that the sauce was originally made in Sri Racha, the seaside town in Chonburi – east of Bangkok as a dipping sauce for seafood. The most authentic and well-known Sri Racha sauce is made by Sri Raja Panich (now part of bigger food corporation – Thai Theparos Foods).

Sri Racha Sauce has been made widely known in the US by the American-Vietnamese entrepreneur who manufactures the sauce and bottles in squeezable plastic bottles (Huy Fong Foods). Its taste and colour are different from Thai Sri Racha Sauce. Thai ones are not as red and taste better as it’s more familiar to me.

The originality aside, I always have a bottle of two of Thai Sri Racha sauce in my larder. I do not mind whether it comes in a plastic or glass bottle – but the glass bottles make me feel nostalgic with fond memory of spending part of my childhood in Sri Racha. The Sri Racha sauce I’m having at the mo is in glass bottle and made in Chonburi (probably not in Sri Racha). A teaspoon or two of Sri Racha sauce will lift up the taste of many dishes. I use it in my Pasta dishes , Seafood Chowder , Buffalo Wings, Spicy Coleslaw, Tuna Mornay and Chicken Pot Pies, etc. It’s also good as a substitute for Portuguese Peri Peri Sauce for Baked Chicken.