Better And Better

If you don't draw yours, I won't draw mine. A police officer, working in the small town that he lives in, focusing on family and shooting and coffee, and occasionally putting some people in jail.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Brings tears to my eyes

Above you see the product of generosity. I had mentioned to Dad that we, my wife and I (our kids are too young to appreciate the good things in life, yet), were almost out of Sirachi sauce. Rooster Sauce. Pepper Paste. Thai/Vietnamese/Cambodian hot pepper paste. It goes by a lot of names, none of them are spoken by Martha Stewart, and its relatively easy availability on the U.S. market is almost certainly directly attributable to the unfortunate troubles on the Indochine Peninsula about 4 decades ago.

All praise the pepper sauce.

The pepper sauce is good.

It hurts. So good.

My wife and I, you see, are Pepper Heads.

Oh, we don't go to silly festivals. We don't go to silly boutique shops that pride themselves on the Scoville Heat Units that they can pack in each bottle.

We go to the source. We hit the Asian markets, HARD.

Sometimes we'll drop by the Metropolis Central Market, and pick up a few ounces of truly HOT cayenne that is nothing like what we find around here, and maybe a half-pound of habenero-stuffed olives (LawDog refused to eat even one, the sissy). (They're. So. Good! F.I.O.: Food-Induced-Orgasm)

But usually, it's the Asian markets that bring forth the good stuff.

A little while ago, my bride realized that we were about to run out of "Rooster Paste." This stuff is the coarsely-ground remains of red peppers in a pint plastic jar with a big mouth. I went to buy some more, and found none. I went to three different stores and returned home empty-handed. And I was sad.

I mentioned this to my Dad, who is something of an aficionado of the Pepper himself. He dropped by a local dealer that had the goods, and arrived at my house with the cute little 8-ounce jar that you see to the left. Something to see us through. Low on ammo? Call Dad. Stuck in a snow-filled ditch? Call Dad. Out of pepper paste? Call Dad.

At the same time, my bride arrived home with a pint of the good stuff, so we held off opening Dad's little CARE package.

But that pound of protection soon wore off. As you can see in the top photo, we were about to have to crack into the little jar.

Today, however, my wife ventured into a new Asian market, and brought home this marvelous, wondrous, terrific, beautiful, terrible red jar of sunshine:
To convey the scale on this bad boy, I put next to it the little jar, and the KelTec P3AT that I had on at the moment that I found the beautiful Jar Of Happy Tearful Goodness. For those of y'all that don't know, the P3AT is a small .380 acp pocket pistol.

But still.

Oh, Mama.

My mouf 'ill be wa'hm 'til Summah time.

(Well. Springtime, anyway.)
Yum.

__
And for all you prospective photographers: a lifetime of riflery is responsible for that second, near-perfect photo taken under ambient light at night, with an old point-and-shoot digicam with a tiny objective lens without using the flash. Steady, sight picture, squeeeeeeeeeeeze the trigger/shutter release.

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25 Comments:

At Sunday, December 09, 2007 1:55:00 AM, Blogger KD5NRH said...

Dollar stores are your friends.

Without knowing what part of the state you're in, I can't say for sure which ones to try, but here in Stephenville, this stuff is an occasional item at the Dollar Tree. Bargain City, OTOH, would be more likely to have the big jar, but only maybe once in two or three years.

I always like to check those two before doing any grocery shopping, just in case I can save a few bucks (gallon of French's Deli-style mustard for $3.98 at Bargain City, pints of garlic cayenne sauce for $1 each at Dollar Tree, etc.) that can be used to buy more meat at the regular store.

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 4:39:00 AM, Blogger KD5NRH said...

In reference to your photography note, magnetic base monopods are a wonderful thing. Even a cheap digicam can sometimes get a good shot in very low light if you can hold it dead still for 3-4 seconds.

I'll also throw in my recommendation for the Samsung S730; $130, nice big 2.5" viewfinder, and a manual mode with up to 8 second shutter that will do relatively decent star photos.

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 5:20:00 AM, Blogger phlegmfatale said...

One of my residents came back from vacationing in Korea recently, and she said the whole place reeks of sriracha sauce, and that it was pretty much in everything she ate there.

I love a bit of sriracha in Vietnamese Pho tai, but I think I have a lower threshhold with that stuff than you. The hot that I love is the insanely hot Japanese mustard - I love the flavor, and the beauty of that heat is that even though in an instant you worry that your breathing passages are going to close up shop in protest (an instant after all your nose-hair burns out), the fire is suddenly gone forever. I hate the oily heat of a pepper that overpowers the rest of the meal and leaves my mouth burning for an hour - not my ideer of a good time.

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 9:04:00 AM, Blogger CrankyProf said...

Hot cock sauce!

(That's what the bottle says here, anyway. Cranky Husband is an aficionado.)

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 10:08:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hah! Leave it to you to use a pistol to show scale. Most folks would use a quarter, a pencil, or, gee, maybe a ruler? Hah!

Haven't had Rooster Paste in decades. No need to. Can still taste it.

LD is a smart man.

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 10:35:00 AM, Blogger Rabbit said...

Yum.

There's a Chinee cafe around the corner and down the road from me that makes crispy fried chicken in rooster sauce. Lunch will be on me.

Regards,
Rabbit.

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 12:59:00 PM, Blogger JPG said...

Oh, wow! WHERE IN THE WORLD did mt darlin' D-I-L find that jar? Please, PM, e-mail, phone, smoke signal, or heliograph the name of the emporium whence came EIGHT-AND-A-HALF POUNDS of Sambal Olek in a single glorious vessel. Three point nine keys, 136 ounces . . . , The mind boggles.

The eight-ounce jar was the largest on the shelf at the store where I bought it. I've been using a lot, so BB picked up another for me yesterday. But I gotta get me one of those jars that holds SEVENTEEN TIMES as much.

:-D
Da'

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 3:07:00 PM, Blogger Roberta X said...

Yum! --Though wasabi will always be my first love, Sirachi is secong and Cholula's third.

Why do so many of us love the hot stuff? It's kewl!

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 3:45:00 PM, Blogger Matt G said...

Dad: Town Talk.

Swamp Bunny: I never turn down a free lunch; you're on.

CrankyProf: You've got a dirty mind and a filthy mouth. I love it.

Roberta: Cholula's something I put on my scrambles at a restaurant, but I've quit buying for the house, now. We keep lotsa wasabi paste in our house, though.

KD5nrh: Agreed about the monopods, but I didn't have one handy. I'll take a look at the Samsung. Mine's an older CoolPix.

Bob@TheNest: Sissy! In flaming mouth is found the path to a peaceful mind.

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 4:24:00 PM, Blogger Canadian Girl said...

Gotta love the rooster sauce. On the container we buy here in Canada (the same plastic cylinder with the bright green lid), the white printing on every jar I've ever bought is smudged where it should say "deliciously hot" and my kids think it looks like "delicious idiot". Makes me smile every time.

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 6:05:00 PM, Blogger Old NFO said...

What, no Nuc Mam???? :-) There is a great little Viet restaurant in Honolulu that has quart bottles on every table, but they won't let us get out the door with em, dangit...

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 7:49:00 PM, Blogger none said...

That is good stuff, my 11 year old son is hooked on it now.


I eat raw habaneros and make a tasty habanero candy.

Dop me an email if you want the recipe. These candies are so hot they make most men cry for mama.

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 8:50:00 PM, Blogger OK Katrina said...

F.I.O.=T.M.I.
(too much information)
=)

Call me a wimp but I'm partial to the traditional jalapeño. I have them on nachos, in sandwiches and in tuna salad with crackers. Love, love, love stuffed jalapeños with tuna and/or cream cheese. The fried varieties are okay but the tuna stuffed ones are the absolute best.

 
At Sunday, December 09, 2007 10:11:00 PM, Blogger shooter said...

A long time ago, in a galaxy known as Milwaukee, I dated a girl who's father fancied himself a hot sauce conna...connouss...the heck with it! He liked the hot stuff.

Walking through a mall one day with him in tow on a Xmas shopping jaunt, he pulls me into that "Hot Sauce" store found world-mall-wide and tries to outdo me with the samples. We're going toe to toe until I grab the bottle of "Hot Cock" sauce as Cranky likes to call it, and slather it on a Dorito. I swear by the gods and all that is holy there was a tear in his eye as he called me 'son'.

Never in my life has there been a prouder moment.

 
At Monday, December 10, 2007 12:18:00 AM, Blogger J.R.Shirley said...

Yum! Me likey!

(Jordy likes to call it "cock sauce" too. But then, she giggles so disarmingly.)

 
At Monday, December 10, 2007 12:37:00 AM, Blogger Christina RN LMT said...

You guys are all nuts.

I can't handle the spicy foods. Why should I? I like to be able to actually taste the food I'm eating, and crying messes up my makeup.

 
At Monday, December 10, 2007 12:48:00 AM, Blogger Matt G said...

I knew I'd see you here, John. Still remember how you burned Dad and me (two Texas pepper-heads, no less) out with that massive batch of chile. Mmmm.

Christina, that red paste is hot, but it's not insane like an habenero. It's about the heat of a mild-to-medium jalepeno. I prefer the kind with garlic in it; my wife likes it straight up. (She can take a degree or two hotter than I can.)

 
At Monday, December 10, 2007 6:45:00 AM, Blogger Kyra said...

Now that is one BIG jar. I've tried to like hot things, but I failed miserably at it. Now, if it were a jar of chocolate, I'd be all over that!

Does the stuff ever go bad? Or do you guys just go through it that quickly?

 
At Monday, December 10, 2007 12:35:00 PM, Blogger Rabbit said...

Hie thee to a Krogers and pick up a jar of Albert's Mexican Village Hot Sauce from the refrigerated cabinet. Get the original, with the green label and (usually) green screwtop. I started eating that stuff when I was literally an infant. One of my best friends from grade school owns the company that makes it.

I swear, it's like manna.

Just keep it refrigerated.

Regards,
Rabbit.

 
At Monday, December 10, 2007 4:13:00 PM, Blogger Not Afraid to Use It said...

That is one. big. jar. The fact that you know you will go through it all before it goes bad is IMPRESSIVE.

I am more of a Thai chili sauce girl. I like the sweet with the tiny bit of hot tang to it. I make fried rice with it. Good, good stuff.

 
At Monday, December 10, 2007 5:01:00 PM, Blogger Matt G said...

Not Afraid: my wife reminded me that she's gotten one of these jars before, and that we froze a lot of the past in little packets-- it freezes and thaws beautifully, suffering not at all.

It cannot be left out when opened.

We also use the sauce, but lately it tastes too sweet for most things, except Thai foods and the like.

 
At Tuesday, December 11, 2007 3:17:00 PM, Blogger Not Afraid to Use It said...

Oooooh! The freezing idea is excellent! I will have to pass that along to Hubbie. Thanks for the tip!

 
At Sunday, December 16, 2007 5:07:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mr. G,

Here is a recipe for some killer chicken, developed when a Bangkok restaurateur would not divulge the secrets of a house special.

THAI DYE CHICKEN

Blend:
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup oyster sauce
¼ cup chopped cilantro
¼ cup melted butter

Marinate whole chicken legs-thigh and drumstick- overnight. Bake 1 hour, basting with marinade.


Enhancements/variations:
Blend marinade in a blender, adding, to taste:
2 inch piece fresh ginger and/or
1 or 2 fresh serrano chilies
Sambal to taste.

For the fans of wasabi, try http://www.freshwasabi.com/ for the real, unadulterated, thing. Most powdered "wasabi" is actually wasabi flavored mustard. BE WARNED: if it is actually the wasabi, you like, the real stuff will forever spoil you for the powder (HIME et al.)

 
At Sunday, December 16, 2007 5:12:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mr. G,

Here is a recipe for some killer chicken, developed by my Mom when a Bangkok restaurateur friend would not divulge the secrets of a house special.

THAI DYE CHICKEN

Blend:
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup oyster sauce
¼ cup chopped cilantro
¼ cup melted butter

Marinate whole chicken legs-thigh and drumstick- (any parts will do)overnight. Bake 1 hour, basting with marinade.


Enhancements/variations:
Blend marinade in a blender, adding, to taste:
2 inch piece fresh ginger and/or
1 or 2 fresh serrano chilies
Sambal to taste.

For the fans of wasabi, try http://www.freshwasabi.com/ for the real, unadulterated thing. Most powdered "wasabi" is actually wasabi flavored mustard. BE WARNED: if it is actually the wasabi, you like, the real stuff will forever spoil you for the powder (HIME brand et al.)

 
At Sunday, December 16, 2007 5:15:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ooops!

Sorry for the double post. I did not see that you are screening posts. No doubt this is due to sad experience. Did I miss the memo?

Huck

 

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