Hot Sauce

I felt that I should start my first real entry what had inspired me the most in writing this blog…hot sauce.  This topic should not come to any surprise for anyone who knows me.  You don’t even need to know me very well to know that I LOVE hot sauce.  Just one meal with me and you’ll notice. Trust me.

The origin of this crazy obsession comes from my Auntie Da who is a spicy food fanatic.  She works as a chef for a catering company in Massachusetts, and whenever she would come visit us, or we would visit her she would always prepare some spicy dish for us.  Thus introducing me into the world of spicy food.

It spiked my freshmen year of college, when I was forced to eat bland cafeteria food every single day.  I quickly noticed that hot sauce was an easy fix to make sure that I had a good, flavorful, and of course spicy meal.  I am no Martha Stewart, so this continued on when I moved off campus and started to cook for myself.  It escaladed when I started working at a summer camp two years ago and had camp food three meals a day for two months.  Camp food can be more or less worse than cafeteria food, depending on the night.  So obviously Frank’s Hot Sauce, camp’s hot sauce of choice, was on everything.  And I repeat everything that was on my tray.  My campers were both disgusted and in awe of this, some even felt inclined to try it out for themselves.

I have tried many hot sauces throughout the years. Tapatio and Cholula were my go to hot sauces for a while, as they were always conveniently in restaurants and cheap to buy.  However lately I can confidently say that Trader Joe’s Jalapeño Pepper Hot Sauce is my staple item.  It has enough flavor and spice, but not too much that you can’t taste the real flavor of the meal.  It also is under $2, which is awesome for a college student on a budget!  At home Trader Joe’s is literally a minute drive away, so I can run and get this hot sauce any time I want.  However the closest TJ’s at school is a fifteen-minute drive away and not always as convenient, which forces me to stock up.  Sadly I am running out of my current bottle and am forced to either suck it up and drive to the store or use my cheap random brand of hot sauce that I keep for emergencies solely like this.

Many people think that hot sauce is gross, but the phrase, “don’t hate it until you’ve tried it” comes to mind.  If you’re a baby you can get a tamer hot sauce, and if you like a lot of heat then there are plenty of options to choose from, either way it is a great way to add flavor to any meal.