Ok, a first for me… a food product review. I’ve been eating spicy food quite a bit lately, and loving it as always… I’ve been on a huge Thai food kick, and lately Korean food too. Both can get fiery as hell, but sometimes, you’re eating your scrambled eggs in the morning and you feel you want just a little bit of a kick. This is where I find I use random hot sauces a lot. With my work at Costco, I’ve had an ample supply of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, and previously Louisiana Hot Sauce… but the one makes my mouth just think of hot wings now, and the other is such a hit of vinegar in the mouth… I’m left wanting more. Does the sauce have to be liquid fire… no. It has to taste good, have a kick (small, large, whatever… it’s the taste that matters), and work well with the food in question, or better yet, all foods!
The two that I’ve been going to lately have been Chohula, and now, Valentina. Both are pretty mild on the heat scale, but the ‘goes with everything’ flavour they have just works so well. Chohula’s big problem for me is the price… not a lot of places have it, and if they do, they want quite a bit for it. Blah blah blah, imported from Mexico, blah blah… whatever you want to say grocery stores. Valentina is made in Mexico, comes in a way bigger bottle, and is about 1/4 of the price. Price edge definitely goes to Valentina (I got my bottle at the Metrotown Superstore… it wasn’t in the Mexican foods aisle, or even with the other hot sauces. If memory serves right, it was towards the end of the Asian food aisle. Not sure why… but worth the hunt for it!)
The taste of a lot of hot sauces in the market is dictated by a few things. Chiles should be the biggest thing, but too often the other two main ingredients take over. One of those is sale, the other ingredient is often vinegar. One of the biggest and oldest hot sauces in North America is Tabasco. Tabasco is a big vinegary kick to your face, and oh yeah… there’s some chiles in there too. You almost have to pucker up after tasting it… not from the chiles, but from the vinegar. This is where Valentina really excels… yes you taste a bit of salt, and a bit of vinegar, but the underlying taste in the sauce is the chiles. Again… it’s not super hot (there is a hotter version made, but as of yet, haven’t seen it in a store), but there is a kick there, and if you don’t find it super hot, because of that price value… dump a lot of it on there!
If you like hot sauce on your food…whatever kind of food it is… give Valentina a try. She’s a mighty tasty, and good value hot sauce.
Jeff approved! 😉
